


Crossed Blades

by erttheking



Category: Dark Souls (Video Games), Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Gen, Nightmares, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Realm Hopping, Team Up, erttheking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-20 09:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 31,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4782914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erttheking/pseuds/erttheking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are other worlds out there, many of them reflecting the one Lucina and her family and friends are used to. One world, however, is nothing like what they know. An otherworldly darkness is slowly choking it. A handful of warriors fight to stop it, warriors that Lucina and her friends will find herself fighting alongside in a desperate battle.  (Minor canon changes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waking

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this is my first foray into AO3. Some of you may have seen me on FF.Net where I have the majority of my work. I'll be slowly working to bring over my current works to this website, hopefully to branch out to a new audience. (Also, seeing as I'm rather new here, I'd greatly appreciate suggestions for the tags, I'm not terribly familiar with them yet)

Author’s Note:  I kind of had to make some tweaks to both the lore and meat of Dark Souls in order to make it transition to a written medium well.  I’ll try to explain the logic behind my choices at the end of each chapter.  Feel free to shoot me a PM if you feel I didn’t properly explain something.  There’s always a chance I’ll forget something.  
  
XXXXX  
  
Fare panted as she wildly glanced around her.  She had no idea where she was, only that it was some sort of deep dark carven, barely enough light to see an arms length in front of her.  Desperately, she extended her palm and tried to summon a fireball, tried to will the flame into existence, anything to cast away this darkness but nothing came.  It didn’t work.  She desperately tried to remember.  How had she come to be here?  Where had she been before?  Nothing came.  
  
A scuttling noise reached her ears, and instinctively she reached for her sword, only to find that her sheath was empty.  A quick reach around to her back revealed that her shield had also mysteriously vanished.  In fact, she didn’t even seem to be wearing the armor that she had found, her hands finding only bare flesh.  “What’s going on?” she whispered.  Fear was coursing through her, she had no idea what to do, she just wanted this to end.  
  
“Murderer.”  Something directly behind her had spoken, so close that she could feel hot breath on her back.  Her body tensed.  She knew that voice.  She had done everything in her power to try and forget that voice, but it refused to leave her.  Bitter regret swelled in her stomach.  “Murderer.” it repeated.  
  
Against her better judgement, Fare turned around.  A giant spider, several times her size, was standing just behind her.  It’s entire body was a fiery red, with dozens of milky white eyes dotting its face, and the creature itself seemed to glow a bright crimson.  But that wasn’t what drew Fare’s eyes, as she was focused on the crest of the spider’s head.  The upper body of a woman, everything from the waist up, was rooted in the head of the spider.  A beautiful woman with flowing long red hair, smooth silky skin and well crafted dainty features.  There was an exception to this, however.  Her head was dangling to the side, hanging onto her neck by a thin strip of flesh, blood spurting out of the bare stump.  
  
The dangling head smiled a cruel, crooked smile.  “Murderer,” it said softly.  
  
Fare sank to her knees, her hands clasped in front of her.  She had to make her understand, she had to.  She couldn’t hold it inside any longer.  “Daughter of Fire,” she blurted out, “I beg of you for forgiveness.  I have sinned, this I cannot deny.  I have committed one of the most heinous acts imaginable, but I assure you it was not my intent!  Please Daughter of Fire!”  Fare felt tears sting the back of her eyes.  She hadn’t meant to!  Surely she could understand.  “If I had had any idea of who you were.  I would have…I would have…please.”  
  
The woman smiled.  “Murderer.” she said softly, the spider’s head leaning forward, opening its giant maw to reveal a black void with no end.  Fare opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out.  A flow of magma burst from the spider’s mouth, speeding directly towards her.  She knew that it would sear the flesh from her bones within seconds, if she was lucky it would be a quick death. If not, she would lie on the ground with what little of her body was left from the attack, waiting for the mercy of death.  It was almost at her when everything fell apart.  The floor gave way underneath her, the woman in the spider dissolved into a grey goop and she started to fall when she felt a violent jerk of her head.  
  
The next thing she knew, she was sitting in a small, slightly dusty room, marble lining the wall and orange tiles making up the floor.  A small fire was burning around a rusted sword that was planted in the ground.  It all came rushing back to her.  She was in Anor Londo.  Quelaag was dead.  It had all just been a nightmare.  “Thank the Mother of Fire,” she whispered.  
  
She let out a small sigh of relief, looking at her side.  Her sword was there, in fact both of them were.  The longsword she had bought from Andre of Astora was resting in its sheath, right next to the green, curved fury sword that had once belonged to Quelaag.  She felt a pang of guilt.  She wasn’t sure if she was worthy to use a sword that belonged to a daughter of a Lord after what she had done.  On the other hand, she couldn’t have just left it there, even if she had murdered its previous owner.  A pang of guilt echoed in the pit of her stomach  
  
“You didn’t murder her!” she thought to herself.  “She attacked YOU.  You were defending yourself!”  That did little to make the horrible feeling in her gut go away.  Truth be told, she had no idea what had happened down in the depth of Blight town.    
  
She didn’t know why one of the seven Daughters of Chaos had been lurking in the cavern that held the Bell of Awakening, or why she had been corrupted into a massive beast.  It was very possible that she had become a predator, waiting at a place where she knew warriors seeking the Bell of Awakening would come so that she could kill them.  On the other hand, she could have very easily been trying to defend her territory from a potential intruder.  
  
Fare would never know.  The only person who had known was Quelagg, and she had taken the answers with her when she died.  That egg man she had found underneath didn’t seem to realize that Quelagg was even dead, much less what her plans were.  And the Fair Lady, Quelagg’s sister, had actively mistaken Fare for Quelagg.  Fare felt her eyes sting again.The Fair Lady, the poor thing had actually thought that she was her sister.  
  
Fare bitterly thought back to how she barely had been able to get away from the Fair Lady before she had completely lost her composure.  Even then though, she had asked why she was crying.  She had wanted to know why her older sister was crying.  “Mother of Fire save me,” she whispered.  
  
“Hm?  Did you say something?”  Fare looked up.  Sitting on the other side of the bonfire in slightly worn but still shining armor was Solaire of Astoria.  His helmet was on the ground in front of him, revealing a rough but friendly face and short golden hair.    
  
“Bad dreams,” Fare said, pulling off the helmet of her scavenged knight armor and rubbing her eyes.  She would be hesitant to call anyone her friend in Lordran, you rarely stayed around someone long enough to become friends with them.  Solaire was an exception to this.  Even though their paths commonly separated, he was the only person she found herself regularly fighting alongside, and there was simply something strong that was forged when you were constantly relying on someone to keep you alive.  
  
“I think everyone has them,” Solaire said, nodding sympathetically.  “With the world the way it is now, I would be afraid of the person who didn’t have nightmares.”  
  
“That doesn’t do much to make it easier to bear,” Fare said.  “Wait,” she said, looking at Solaire.  “You have nightmares?”  
  
He nodded, smiling sadly.  “All the time, I am not ashamed to admit.  I’d rather not say what about though.  Personal matters, I hope you understand.”  
  
“I do, I feel the same way about mine,” Fare said.  “I just know how it feels and I want you to know you can talk to me.”  
  
Solaire let out a gentle laugh.  “If I didn’t know any better, I think you had feelings for me.”  Fare snorted.  The idea of her and Solaire together was laughable.  To be honest the idea of her being with anyone seemed far-fetched to her.  Solaire flushed slightly at the snort.  “Oh no, dear me.  Pretend you didn’t hear that.”  
  
“Hear what?” Fare asked.  Before either of them could help themselves, they both burst into laughter.  
  
“Oh, it’s good to remember how to laugh,” Solaire said, still chuckling lightly.  Fare grinned at him, the nightmare that she had had out of her mind.  “Well, as much as I hate to break up the good mood, I feel like you and I are well rested.  You did promise that you would tell me about that serpent when we were.”  
  
She sighed.  She had remembered that.  She would’ve told Solaire when she had first gotten here, but that had been right after she had run up a flying buttress, dodging arrows the size of spears while she had done so.  She had been a little bit tired after that, to say the least.  “He calls himself Kingseeker Frampt, he appeared at Firelink Shrine after I rang both Bells of Awakening.  He said that I’m the Chosen Undead, and that I’m supposed to take Lord Gwyn’s place and drive off the darkness plaguing Lordran.”  
  
“I see he has excellent judgement then!  I can think of very few who are more worthy to take the place of the Lord of Fire than you,” Solaire said, a sincere smile on his face.  
  
Fare flushed.  “Shut up,” she mumbled.  “I’m not a leader.  I guess I’m pretty good at fighting considering everything I had to do to get this far, but a leader of an entire kingdom?  I’m a peasant from the Great Swamp!  I may dress like a knight, but I only found these weapons and armor and learned to use them after I got here!”  
  
Solaire smiled.  “Perhaps that is why you are not Lord yet.  The journey Frampt has set out for you will mold you, give you the skills you need.”  
  
“Maybe,” Fare said skeptically.  There was no way she was going to give up on the quest that she had been given.  It seemed far-fetched, but with a lack of alternative options in the miserable world of Lordran, she was willing to take any chance to make it better.  Even if she did feel like it seemed impossible that she was supposed to rule the entire land.  Still, she knew she had to press on, it gave her something to work towards, something that gave her purpose.  Without it she might go-“NO! NO!” she mentally shouted at herself.  “Don’t even THINK about that!  You are NOT going Hollow!”    
  
Slowly, she raised up the palm of her hand.  The mark of the Darksign, that uneven charred circle, growly faintly.  How many times had she died?  How many times had her sanity been put at risk?  How many times had she treaded the line between coming back, in agony but still of sound mind, and becoming one of the hundreds of thousands of mindless Hollows that roamed through Lordran.  
  
“Fare?” Solaire said, tilting his head.  
  
Fare shook her head.  “Sorry.  Anyway, Frampt said that I had to come here to Anor Londo to find something called the Lord Vessel.  He seems very enthusiastic about it, apparently it’ll help me somehow.  He really does want things to get better.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “I just wish his breath didn’t smell like someone crawled in his mouth a year ago and died.”  
  
Solaire chuckled.  “Well Chosen Undead-“  
  
“Please don’t call me that,” Fare said, wincing as she heard the title.  She didn’t want to be some pompous stuck up braggart who spouted off titles every time she met someone.  
  
“Very well then.  Fare.  It is your duty to retrieve the Lordvessel and return it to Frampt.  It would, however, be my pleasure to help you on your mission.  If you will allow me that is.”  
  
Fare paused.  “And this is different from how you helped me kill the gargoyles on the roof of the church and that giant dragon with the mouth for a ribcage how?”  
  
Solaire shrugged, still smiling.  “Somewhat more permanent?” he replied.  
  
“I don’t really see why you can’t.  After all, I am supposed to be a leader, might as well get some followers,” she said.  
  
Solaire got to his feet and did an exaggerated bow, grinning goofily.  “Then by your leave my Lord.”  
  
“Shut up,” Fare said, but she was grinning.  
  
“Well, then, we have a Lordvessel to find,” he said getting to his feet and sliding his helmet back over his head.    
  
“No sense in putting it off it seems,” Fare said, putting her own helmet back on.  “I ran into a couple of Black Knights with giant bows outside.  Did you see anymore on the way in before I got here?”  
  
“They weren’t Black Knights, they were Silver Knights,” Solaire said.  “The Silver Knights are the guardians of Anor Londo.  The Black Knights are the ones who fight the enemies of the Lords in far off lands.  I suppose you could say the Silver Knights are the shield and the Black Knights are the sword.”  
  
“Ah,” Fare said, feeling rather embarrassed.  She had a sinking feeling that what Solaire had just told her was common knowledge to the people of Lordran, and even outside kingdoms.  She hadn’t lived in Lordran or the outlying kingdoms, she had lived in the Great Swamp, far away from castles and cities.  She felt rather stupid and lowered her head slightly in shame.  
   
Solaire seemed to notice.  “Oh don’t worry,” he said gently.  “It’s a simple mistake and it’s not particularly vital to our mission.  Just know that they tend to use lighter weapons than their black brothers.”    
  
“Right,” Fare said, drawing Quelagg’s fury sword with her right hand and grasping her kite shield with the other.  Solaire himself had drawn his sword and shield before walking away from the bonfire, to the exit of the room.  Fare followed and reached him just as he gently creaked the door open.    
  
The two stepped out into the hallway, glanced to either end, and began to move deeper into the castle.  Fare was still rather impressed by the state of Anor Londo.  So many parts of Lordran seemed to be in ruin, which made the massive intact buildings of the city seem impossible by comparison.  As they neared the end, they both spotted a pair of Silver Knights, eight feel tell and clutching longswords and shields.  Fare grit her teeth, raised her shield but she had only taken one step forward before she faltered.  
  
One of the knights had stepped forward, but instead of attacking, it had actually sheathed its sword.  With its now free hand, it pointed down a hallway, the other knight watching silently.  “It’s giving us directions?” Fare whispered to Solaire.  “Have you ever seen them do this before?”  
  
“I’ve only seen Silver Knights once or twice,” he replied.  “Maybe they can tell that we’re here to retrieve the Lordvessel.”  
  
Fare scowled.  She had her doubts, mere hours ago she had been dodging arrows the size of spears from Silver Knights.  For some reason however, these Silver Knights weren’t attacking them.  It could be that things were different now that they were inside the castle itself, but she had her doubts.  “Well, I don’t exactly want to pick a fight if they’re not interested in starting one either,” she said.  “Might as well follow them.”  
  
Solaire nodded as they both turned in the direction the Silver Knight was pointing.  For what felt like a good half hour the walked though the countless winding corridors of the castle.  Every time they reached the end of a corridor or hit a dead end, a Silver Knight was there to point them in the right direction.  
  
“This is eerie,” Fare muttered, as they turned away from yet another knight.  “I’m so used to everything trying to kill you in this kingdom.  I feel like any second they’re going to drop the courtesy act and surround us.  They could have a wall of spears and swords around us in seconds, and we’d be dead.  
  
“We’ve strong armor and good steel,” Solaire said, “they’d have to be prepared to sacrifice many of their own to defeat us.  If we were separated, they might have a chance, but together we would be a nightmare to them.”  
  
Fare fought back the urge to laugh.  Solaire could be a little naive at times, but truth be told his optimism could also be a breath of fresh air in the world of Lordran.  “You’re confident.”  
  
“You and I have overcome much to make it this far, we can handle knights that are a mere shadow of what they used to be,” he replied.  
  
Fare frowned.  “What do you mean by that?”  
  
“Haven’t you ever wondered why Black Knights never speak?” he replied.  “In a way, they’re not that different from Hollows.  Back before the fire began to dim, they were mighty warriors.  They were the knights who fought alongside the Lords and kept pace with them.  They were without peers.  But now, their armor is all that remains of them.  All of these suits are empty, filled with the ashes of the warriors that once wore them.”  
  
Fare blinked.  She had expected to feel embarrassed once again for not knowing something that was apparently obvious about the Black Knights, but instead she felt shocked.  “How did that happen?”  
  
Solaire shook his head.  “There are only rumors.  One rumor is that Gwyn sacrificed his soul to the bonfire to keep it alive longer, and when he died all of his knights turned to ash because of the bond they shared with his soul.  Others say that the Black Knights fell victim to the Darksign as well, and that they disintegrate instead of rotting like we do.  Some people even say that the Black Knights are just animated armor brought to live using the dark magic of necromancy.  I don’t know myself, the world the way it is now is simply a long line of questions without answers.”  
  
Fare glanced out of a nearby window, trying to process all of the information she had just been told.  As she did, she spotted something that caused her to stop in her tracks.  “Solaire, what’s that?” she asked, pointing out of the window.  Clouds were gathering in the distance, the flash of lightning bolts illuminating them.  At first glance, it disappeared to be an ordinary lighting storm, but there was something off about it.  The clouds were darker than any clouds that Fare had ever seen in her life, to the point where they looked less like clouds and more like concentrated darkness.  The lightning bolts were dazzling when they shot out of the clouds and into the ground, but inside they looked dim and faint.  Barely visible through the clouds.  
  
“Abyss,” Solaire said softly.  Fare looked at Solaire in horror.  This was something she actually knew about.  
  
“The same Abyss that New Anor Londo was flooded to stop?” she said in terror.  
  
“There’s nothing else that it could be,” Solaire said grimly, still looking at the storm.  “Of all the things that have gone wrong with this world, the Abyss is the most recognizable, and the most dangerous.  It’s why Gwyn was willing to sacrifice an entire city just to keep it at bay.”  
  
“It must be the bonfires,” Fare said quietly.  “They’re going out.  The Abyss appeared when everything started to fall apart, and now the bonfires are even dimmer.  It’s easier than ever for the Abyss to reach us.”  Horror filled her as she spoke these words.  Even in the Great Swamp people had spoken of the Abyss in hushed tones.  A great void that swallowed up any living thing that got near it, and whatever it didn’t kill, it twisted into mindless and warped beasts.  Beasts that would carry out the Abyss’ will and slaughter all who opposed it.  No blade could cut the Abyss, no spell could banish it.  The bonfires were the only defense against it.  The bonfires that were slowly going out.  
  
“I can’t see how else it would be possible,” Solaire said.  “We need to move more quickly.  Us getting the Lordvessel, you replacing Lord Gwyn, it’s the only way we can stop it.”  
  
“I hope,” Fare thought.  “Hope?  What are you saying?  Of course it’ll work, it NEEDS to work.”  Fighting back the urge to swallow, she and Solaire kept moving forward.  After some time, they found themselves in a massive open hall, the ceiling far above them and a massive gate at one end.    
  
“I think that’s the main entrance,” Solaire said.  Fare felt a twinge of annoyance.  She had gone through the arrow dodging incident just to find docile knights who would send them marching about a castle until they ended up by the front door?  Had simply letting them in been too much of a hassle?  
  
A pair of giant sentries wielding shields and halberds stood on either side of the hall.  They glanced at the two of them before pointing their weapons away from the front gate.  Solaire and Fare walked by them, Fare idly watching the sentries.  If they wanted to, she had little doubt they could simply just crush her like an insect with their shields.  Thankfully, it didn’t come to that, and within seconds they had reached the end of the hall.  
  
They stepped through an archway, into a chamber nearly as tall as the hallway they had just exited.  It was empty, except for the pillars that filled the room, and a large figure in gold armor on the far end.  It was easily the strangest armor that Fare had even seen.  It emulated the look of a man with a massive pot belly, even going so far as to properly show how such a man’s breast would look.  Fare gagged as she spotted this.  It was so well crafted that Fare though the man might actually be that fat, until she spotted the giant warhammer that he had one firm hand on.  The head of it easily dwarfed her and Solaire put together.  
  
Whoever it was, he simply stared at the two of them.  Fare considered calling out when a voice echoed from above them.  “Are you the one chosen by Frampt?”  She snapped her head up just in time to see a figure jump down from a balcony above them, landing near the other one.  This man was smaller than the first, though still a head larger than a Black Knight.  His armor was much more impressive, being the same bright gold as his companion’s, but with sharp edges to it, and a helmet that looked like a Lion with bared teeth.  A spear, as long as he was, was clutched in his hand.  
  
“Yes,” she said.  “I’m Fare of the Great Swamp.  Frampt said I’m to succeed Lord Gwyn as Lord of Fire,” she said.  “Who are you?”  
  
“I am the Captain of Gwyn’s Four Knights.  Ornstein the Dragonslayer.”  Fare’s heart leapt up into her throat.  The Ornstein the Dragonslayer?  Everyone had heard of him, even in the most remote corners of the world.  There were countless rumors about him, ranging from his ability to slay any foe with a single strike, to the possibility that he had been able to fight all three of the other Four Knights to a standstill.  
  
Fare nodded.  “I’ve heard of you.  If even half of the tales are true I’d be deeply impressed.”  
  
Ornstein chuckled softly.  “I thank you,” he said.  “And my companion is Smough.  Former royal executioner. I have taken him as a squire.”  
  
Fare blinked.  She had never heard of Smough before.  As if he could read her mind, Solaire whispered in disgust, “You wouldn’t have heard of him, he’s a disgrace. He’s brutal and cruel to those who were put at his mercy and he was once caught eating the remains of a man he had executed.  Among other things.”  
  
Fare’s eyes widened.  Someone like that had been allowed in Anor Londo?  She was about to ask for clarification when she saw Smough looking directly at them.  It was impossible to tell at this distance and with Smough’s helmet on, but Fare felt like he was glaring at them.  
  
“Smough has done things I do not approve of, I will not deny it,” Ornstein said.  “Nonetheless, I saw potential in him, so now he squires for me.  So, Frampt has declared you the Chosen Undead?”  
  
“Yes,” Fare said, nodding her head and trying to keep her eyes on Ornstein and off of Smough.  She could feel him staring at her.  “He said that we had to retrieve the Lordvessel.  I take it that guarding it is your duty?”  
  
“Indeed it is.  However, Frampt is not here, and he has no way of communicating with the palace,” Ornstein said.  “Just because you claim that you are the Chosen Undead does not mean that you are.  There are two of you here, therefore making it through Sen’s Fortress is not enough to prove you are the Chosen Undead.  Many have done it.”  
  
Fare’s head pounded with frustrated and a spike of anger shot through here.  That was it?  She had come all this way and they didn’t even believe that she was who she said she was?  “Then how do you suggest that I prove it?” she asked, taking care to keep her voice level.  The last thing she needed was to give Smough an excuse to use his hammer on her.  
  
“Simple, a duel,” Ornstein said.  “Did you notice that the Silver Knights stopped attacking you when you entered the castle?” Fare nodded, frowning.  She had been wondering about that.  Ornstein sighed sadly.  “They were given orders before they became what they were.  To guard the castle from all except the worthy that enter it.  It is why they still attacked you until were inside, at which point you had proven your skill as worthy, to get past their guard.  I must as you to do the same with me.”  
  
“You gotta fight the two of us,” Smough said.  His voice was much softer than Fare had been expecting, but there was a barely concealed tone of malice in it.  “The last of the Four Knights.”  Before she could stop herself, Fare sniggered.  This man in giant saggy armor, one of the Four Knights?  Lord Gwyn’s chosen warriors?  The concept was too hilarious to take seriously.  “Sorry,” Smough said.  “What did I say that was so funny?”  
  
“You are not one of the Four Knights,” Solaire said sternly.  “You squire to one of them.  There’s a difference.  There’s a reason there are only four of them, it’s a position of the utmost honor.  You have already received a great honor by squiring for the last one left.  You are not, however, his equal.  You may be one day, but that is an honor you will have to work towards.  To earn.”    
  
He gestured to Fare.  “Much like how Fare has had to work to earn her honor as the Chosen Undead, and how Ornstein is still asking her to work for it.  We must work to earn what we desire, we can turn to friends and allies in our times of need, but we still must earn it and not simply demand it be handed to us.  You must do so to become one of the four just as Fare must do so to succeed Gwyn, and I must do so to find my sun.”  
  
Smough let out a soft laugh.  “Your sun?  It’s right up there in the sky,” he said, pointing upward.  “What?  You never looked?”    
  
Fare glanced at Solaire.  She would never admit it, especially if it meant mocking Solaire, but she had never understood what he meant about finding his sun.  Ever since they had met, he had told her how he had come to Lordran to “seek his very own sun” .  At first Fare thought he had thought he was mad, but things had gotten confusing when Solaire had said that she should find the concept odd.    
  
After that, she had no idea what to think of him.  If Solaire had lost his sanity, he would not have found looking for a sun to be strange, yet he clearly had enough of his wits about him to know how bizarre the concept sounded.  Just to pile on how confusing the whole matter was, he never explained to her what he meant by finding his sun, simply smiling and walking away whenever she asked.  
  
“Not the sun, my own sun,” Solaire said.  “I don’t know what it looks like, but I have faith I’ll recognize it when I see it.”  
  
There was a barely audible sound, and Fare had the nauseating feeling that Smough had just smacked his lips.  “I want to fight him,” Smough said.  “He came with the Chosen, shouldn’t he be tested too?”  
  
“He is a trusted companion of mine, he has helped me surpass quite a few challenges, and even helped me ring the first Bell of Awakening,” Fare said hastily.  She felt rather selfish for saying so, but she didn’t have very much confidence in her ability to fight both Smough and Ornstein on her own.  Ornstein alone was cause for concern, she shuddered to think how she was supposed to get around his spear while also avoiding Smough’s hammer.  
  
Ornstein, however, glared at Smough.  “Kindly do not speak for me Smough.  I intended to fight the Chosen by myself.  My goal is to gage her skill, not kill her.  If, it pleases you however, you may fight her companion.”  He looked at Solaire.  “Forgive me, I don’t recall you name.”  
  
“My apologies, I never gave it,” Solaire said, his voice warm once again.  “Solaire of Astoria.”  
  
Ornstein paused, thinking silently.  “Very well.  Solaire, you shall fight Smough, and I Fare.  None of us is to interfere with a duel that we are not a part of.”  
  
“Good,” Smough said, heaving his warhammer off of the ground and holding it in both hands.  
  
“Good luck,” Solaire whispered to Fare, stepping away from her, his shield and sword raised.  
  
“Are you ready?” Ornstein asked, looking at the Undead.  
  
Fare drew in deeply and exhaled.  Ornstein wasn’t going to be fighting to the death.  That meant he would most likely be holding back.  If she fought with everything she had while he didn’t, she might actually have a chance.  She fought back the urge to swallow.  “Yes.”  
  
“Very well.”  Before Fare could even react, Ornstein was in front of her.  She had no idea how it had happened, he had been on the other side of the room and no more than a second had passed.  She had no time to figure it out though, as Ornstein was thrusting his spear at her.  Desperately, barely able to keep up, she shifted her shield to block the attack.  He didn’t let up, a flurry of swift  blows followed, Fare’s shield quaking in her hand as she struggled to keep her grip.  
  
In the middle of his barrage, Ornstein nimbly stepped to the side, thrusting far to the left of Fare’s shield.  Fare fought back the urge to scream in pain as the spear ripped through her side, her armor practically nonexistent against Ornstein’s strength.  He pulled back for another thrust, but Fare acted.  She knew if she tried to block him again, he would just shift again and attack her side.  So she went on the offensive, charging forward, fighting the pain, and swung her sword.  
  
Ornstein reacted quickly, jumping back just avoiding the blow.  Charging forward, Fare thrust her sword again, this time managing to drive it into Ornstein’s leg.  It did not, however, go as deep as Fare had wanted it to, only a few inches deep.  Ornstein’s armor had absorbed the majority of the blow’s force.  
  
His body tensed, but he did not stumble.  He thrust forward again, this time his spear burying itself in Fare’s stomach, her blood splattering all over the floor.  Seething in agony, she broke off, turning and putting distance between her and Ornstein.  As she ran, she sheathed her sword and grabbed a glass flask from her side, swallowing a mouthful of the golden liquid inside.  Estus, a healing draft.  It dulled the pain in her side and stomach and stopped the blood dripping to the floor.  The pain still lingered through.  
  
She turned on the spot, shield raised.  She had expected Ornstein to be directly behind her, but he was where she had left him.  Remembering how fast he could move, she didn’t lower her guard, tensing as she saw him raise his spear.  He did not charge though, he thrust his spear forward in mid-air, and a fork of lightning shot out.  It hit her shield, which did little to stop the energy surging through her body, bringing with it agonizing pain.  “All right then,” Fare though to herself.  Holding out her empty hand, she concentrated.    
  
Fire ignited there, feeling warm in her palm and growing into a ball the size of her head.  With a grunt, she threw it at Ornstein, who sidestepped it with a single graceful move.  Fare pelted a second ball of fire and this one found its mark, impacting on Ornstein’s chest.  He did not scream, but Fare could see his body wince as it hit.  He stiffened, and once again crossed the room in a single charge.  
  
Fare didn’t think, she acted.  He had done this before, attempting to block the assault would simply result in her being overwhelmed and flanked.  She threw herself forward, under the thrust of Ornstein’s spear, she grabbed the hilt of her furysword.  Letting out a roar, she drew the sword and swung it as hard as she could with one swing.  It hit the highest part of Ornstein she could reach, which was his side, the blade burying itself in Ornstein as blood spurted out.    
  
For a second, Fare felt a great sense of accomplishment, and pulled back for another swing.  Ornstein was quicker though.  Taking a step back, he unleashed another flurry of thrusts.  Fare, in the middle of a sword swing, couldn’t get her shield up in time.  The next thing she knew, she was on her back, her sword having flown out of her hand.  Her chest was in agony, she could feel five different wounds and warm blood trickling out.    
  
Forcing herself to her knees, she drew her Estus flask and swallowed two mouthfuls.  The wounds stopped bleeding, but the pain didn’t truly vanish.  Panting, she drew her longsword and got to her feet, but Ornstein was holding his hand up.  “Enough,” he said, twirling his spear and planting the hilt on the ground.    
  
“W-what?” Fare said, her grip tightening on her longsword and shield.  “But we just-”  
  
“I meant to judge your skills, and I have.  An ordinary Human would not have lasted five seconds against me, much less have inflicted a wound on me.”  He chuckled.  “You inflicted three.”  
  
“You inflicted seven,” Fare panted.  “I just-I mean-it seems like you won.”  
  
“The goal was not to win, but to if you are worthy of being called the Chosen Undead.  I say that you succeeded.”  He nodded his head.  “Forgive me for the pain I caused you, I needed to see everything you were capable of.”  
  
“I understand,” Fare said, while inside of her a maelstrom of conflicting emotions roared.  Part of her was mad at Ornstein, part of her was ecstatic that she had passed her test, and mostly she was confused as to what had just happened.  
  
“Now then, your companion should…ugh.”  A groan of pure disgust came from Ornstein.  A quick glance told her why.  Smough had none of the speed or control that Ornstein did.  He was swinging his hammer viciously, trying to kill Solaire with one swing.  Solaire was dancing around Smough with ease though, the hammer swings taking too long to prepare in order to catch him.  Solaire was completely unharmed, while Smough’s blood had splattered all over the floor.  Smough’s armor was even thicker than Ornstein, but Solaire darted forward and swung his sword at Smough’s legs, plunging it in-between the gaps.  Smough responded by hissing and swinging his hammer again, Solaire easily dodging.  The former executioner didn’t seem to have any other plans.  He didn’t retreat, didn’t try and defend himself, he didn’t even change his offense.  
  
“Enough!” Ornstein snapped.  “You are besmirching the name of the Four Knights Smough!”  The fight stopped instantly.  Smough was breathing heavily, while Solaire barely seemed tired.  Upon realizing that the fight was over, Solaire immediately put some distance between him and Smough.    
  
Ornstien crossed the room in a flash as Solaire slowly made his way back to Fare.  The dragonslayer glared at Smough, though he had to crane his neck up in order to do so.  “Sloppy,” he said.  “No tact, no form, no discipline.  He didn’t even look like he was trying very hard to avoid you.  You let your anger get the better of you.”  
  
“He insulted me,” Smough hissed.  “Don’t you always say a knight should have his pride?  He said I wasn’t one of the Four Knights.  Am I supposed to-“ he was cut off.  Ornstein flipped his spear over and thrust it forward.  The butt struck Smough in the face, and although he was wearing his helmet, he still clutched at his head and let out a soft groan of pain.  
  
“You insulted his goal just as much as he insulted your position.  Your words were even sharper I found.  Yet he did not let his emotions rule him.  He kept his focus on the fight and didn’t let personal grudges dictate his actions  A painfully basic rule of combat that you seem to be struggling with.”  Ornstein let out a groan of frustration.  “I see so much potential in you Smough, but you need to unlock it yourself.  The human is right, you need to earn it.”  
  
Smough made a noise that Fare couldn’t quite place, but said nothing else.  “I apologize for my squire’s unruly behavior,” Ornstein said.  “You have proven yourself worthy of being the Chosen Undead, and your companion of being worthy of following you.”  
  
Fare sighed in relief.  “Thank you.  Frampt said that the Lordvessel would be here.  Do you have it?”  
  
“I don’t, but my Lady does.”  Orenstein pointed his spear at the balcony he had jumped off of earlier.  “You will find her upstairs.  Good luck on your quest.”  Fare glanced at Solaire, who gave her a firm nod.  The two of them made their way across the room, Smough still glaring at both of them, before coming across a pair of stone elevators.  
  
Fare noticed that one of the elevators was rather small, just enough to hold a couple of people, while the authored was simply gigantic. “Makes sense in a way.  Ornstein wouldn’t fit on the smaller one.”  Both she and Solaire stepped into the smaller one, and were raised up.  Within a few seconds, they were stepping off onto the balcony.  A bonfire was dimly crackling in front of them, and to the left was a giant set of double doors.  
  
Fare’s heart was pounding upon seeing the doors.  Part of her wanted to stop at the bonfire first, to refill her Estus and make the aching pains in her body vanish, but those thoughts were pushed out.  She felt a kind of panicky excitement at the sight of the doors.  Whatever Frampt had sent her here to do, whatever Ornstein had meant by his Lady, it was on the other side of the door.  
  
Without thinking, she found herself in front of the giant double doors, a hand on each one, pushing.  It opened slowly, but still felt much easier to open than Fare had been expecting.  As the doors creeped open, Fare felt the urge to either cover her eyes or look away.  She felt like she was staring into a bright light, even though the room beyond was no more well lit than the one she was in.  Fighting the urge to slam her eyes shut, she forced herself to look forward.  
  
A massive woman, who dwarfed Ornstein, Smough, and even giants in size, was lying on a couch that was big enough for even her, looking at Fare.  She wore fine silk clothing that seemed to flow over her body, covering her nearly entirely.  For the most part.  Fare felt a rather uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach when she saw that the woman’s bust was rather exposed.  It only doubled when she realized the sheer size of it, each one easily being bigger than her.  
  
“Thou hast journeyed far, and overcome much, Chosen Undead.  Come hither child,” the woman spoke.    
  
Forgetting her discomfort at the almost otherworldly gentle voice of the woman, Fare moved forward.  A clink of metal on stone told her that Solaire was right behind her.  He gasped in a voice that was equal part shock and joy.  “Gwynevere.  Daughter of Gwyn.  Queen of Sunlight.”  Fare felt a jolt.  She was in the presence of the Queen of Sunlight?  
  
“Indeed I am,” Gwynevere said gently, the two stopping in front of her.  “Since the day Father his form did obscureth, I have await’d thee.  I bequeath the Lordvessel to thee.”  From underneath the cushion she rested on, Gwynevere grasped a stone bowl that was nearly the size of Smough’s hammer and placed it on the ground before Fare.  “And beseech thee.  Sucked Lord Gwyn and inheriteth the Fire of our world.  Thou shall endeth this eternal twilight, and avert further Undead sacrifices.    
  
Fare glanced at the Lordvessel.  It certainly had the look of something important, but she had no idea how she was supposed to get it out of Anor Londo. “Bring the Lordvessel to Frampt.  Worry not about its weight, for thou who touch the Lordvessel are bequeathed with a great gift,” Gwynevere said, as if she could read Fare’s mind.  “Thou who touch the Lordvessel may travel through the bonfire to any other bonfire that has touched them, along with whomever touches them.”  
  
“Well that’ll do it,” Fare thought, reaching out and gently touching the stone bowl, Solaire doing the same.  It felt pleasantly warm, as if it gave off its own heat, and she could feel it spreading through the rest of her body.  Even though her hand was protected by a gauntlet, she felt the warmth.  “This gift,” she said, looking up at the Queen of Sunlight, “how do I use it?”  
  
“Reach into the bonfire and picture your destination in thine mind,” Gwynevere said, smiling.  “That is all.  The Lordvessel will be vital to thine quest.  Frampt will explain all you need know now that thou has it.”  Fare swallowed.  She still wasn’t quite sure if she was excited or panicking, but either way her hand on the Lordvessel was trembling.    
  
She forced herself to take a deep breath.  The Queen of Sunlight herself had given her her blessing.  Not only did Gwynevere think she could do this, more importantly Gwynevere thought that the curse of the Undead could be removed.  This could work.  There was hope.  Her quest wasn’t impossible.  As these thoughts filled her, her hand stopped shaking.  Warm, comforting relief washed over her and she smiled.  “Thank you,” she whispered softly.  Gwynevere just smiled.  
  
“Solaire, do you mind helping me carry this back to the bonfire?” Fare asked.  
  
“It would be my pleasure,” the knight said.  He had not said anything to Gwynevere, but he had spent the entire time beaming at her.  Fare wondered for a minute if she was what he had meant by the sun he had been looking for.  Maintaining eye contact certainly had similar results to looking at a sun, but she decided now wasn’t the time to ask.  Both of them grabbed one end of the Lordvessel, and with a great heave lifted it up over their heads.    
  
It was much easier than Fare had been expecting.  The Lordvessel wasn’t light, but neither was it as heavy as she expected a stone bowl of its size to be.  She and Solaire managed to get it outside of Gwynevere’s throne room with ease, placing it down directly in front of the fire.  “So, to Firelink Shrine?” Solaire asked.  
  
Fare didn’t answer, she was staring directly out of the window.  The dark clouds she had seen earlier had come even closer.  In the time it had taken them to meet Gwynevere, they were almost directly on top of the palace.  They were fewer and smaller, as if they were dissipating like a real storm, but the few that remained were just as pitch black as they were before.  “With haste,” she replied.  The two of them approached the fire, a wave of pleasant warmth washing over Fare as they did.  The pain in her body from her fight with Ornstein faded away, and she glanced down, noting that her Estus flask had filled itself as she had expected.  
  
“Very well,” Solaire said, both of them taking the Lordvessel with one hand and reaching out to the bonfire with the other.  However, the very second their hands reached the flame, a loud crack filled the palace.  Fare snapped her head up to see a lightning bolt, the same consuming black as the clouds that it most likely came from, passing through the roof as if it wasn’t there.  Before Fare could blink, it had reached the ground, impacting on both the bonfire and the pair of outstretched hands.  Fare could feel herself tipping over, the same as if she was falling off a cliff.  Before she could register anything else, she was falling through darkness.  Never-ending darkness.    
  
Fear pounded through her.  She didn’t know what to do.  Just as she felt like she was going to lose her nerve, she spotted a small light.  The direction in which she was falling was bringing it closer.  It grew closer and closer, until it was close enough to blind her.  She slammed her eyes shut.  Then opened them again.  She wasn’t in Anor Londo.  She wasn’t in Firelink Shrine either.  She had no idea where she was.  
  
XXXXX  
  
Author’s Note:  Some of the obvious changes I made with this chapter are Solaire sticking with the main character, Ornstein and Smough talking, and there not being hostiles inside the palace.  These changes all have one thing in common.  They work all right in video games, but not in a written medium.  Having no one be with you to help you ever and everything trying to attack you works in a video game, not so much in a written story where there needs to be more variety and character interaction.  There can’t be constant action and fighting.  Solaire strikes me as the type of person who would want to stick with the Chosen Undead and I wanted to give some character to Smough and Ornstein.    
  
Speaking of which, their duel not being to the death makes sense IMHO because they’re supposed to help find the Chosen Undead.  It’d be a devastating end to everything they were trying to accomplish if they made the Chosen Undead go Hollow by accident.  That and a fight to the death would be a waste of talented warriors like Ornstein and Smough if they Chosen Undead ended up winning.  
  
The Lordvessel granting the ability to travel from bonfire to bonfire to anyone who touches it isn’t too far out there, it’s never explained how you got that ability.  Besides, in Dark Souls II anyone can do it, so the ability clearly isn’t that special.  The “And whoever touches you” was a necessary change for the crossover part of this story.  The Abyss storms were also needed for that, and considering that it’s been shown that the Abyss is both leaking into Lordran AND can transport you great distances across time and space, I thought it was golden for a crossover.  
  
Ok, that’s all the changes I can think of, be sure to let me know if I forgot anything.  And let me know what you think of this new story.


	2. Arrival

Author’s Note:  Readers of my others story, From the Ashes, will know that I talked about concerns with feeling a lack of inspiration in my writing.  Which I am glad to say I am feeling when I write this story.  I feel alive for the first time in a long time.  So this story is going to be my main focus for awhile.  I’ll keep working on From the Ashes but I’m putting it on the back burner for now because writing it was turning into a chore for me because of the burnout.  Right, onto chapter 2.  
  
XXXXX  
  
Lucina stirred.  She had been sitting in the back of a horse drawn carriage, lightly dozing as she rested her head against the wall.  The carriage lurching to a stop jerked her out of it.  “Wha?” she said groggily, rubbing her eyes.  “We there?”  She was wearing her usual dark blue armor and tunic, her hair the same color.  Out of instinct, she felt for the golden hilt of Falchion, the unique holy sword that was her family’s heirloom.  
  
On the other side of the carriage, her father Chrom frowned.  He wore his usual outfit, dark blue armor with a white cape.  Although, for reasons she never quite understood, his armor didn’t cover his right arm.  To be fair, she had seen odder choices in armor.  “We can’t be,” he said, grasping his own sword.  Which was also Falchion.  Technically the two swords were the same sword.    
  
Five years ago, Lucina had traveled back in time in order to save her father and by extension the entire world from the Shadow Dragon known as Grima.  During the trip, she had brought her father’s sword, resulting in there being two of them.  That wasn’t the only thing that there was two of now.  With no way back to her time (Though it had been such a miserable, war torn place and everyone she cared about had come back with her, Lucina didn’t particularly miss it) she found herself living alongside her past self, who was now four.  
  
Originally she had meant to slip away to let little Lucy (As she was now called) grow up without complication.  Her mother, Robin, would hear none of it however.  As such, she was introduced to the realm of Ylisse as a distant cousin of the royal family.  Her brand of the Exalt, a birthmark unique to the Ylissen royalty, had made it a convincing story.  Things had been less complicated for the friends that had accompanied her back, and though it was awkward for them to be around the same age as their parents, all of them had settled into semi-normal living arrangements.  
  
Ever since the fall of Grima, two years after Lucina had arrived in the past, things had been quiet for the most part.  There was still the occasional bandit attack, but it was a welcome change from the hordes of undead soldiers that Grima had commanded, or his religious followers.  Two days ago however, a message had arrived from Tiki, the Voice of the Divine dragon Naga, Grima’s opposite.  She had visited the gate to the Outrealms, worlds outside theirs, and had noticed something odd.  She said that she had not wanted to say too much in the letter in case it had been intercepted and had asked them to come in person to the gate.  So she, her father and her aunt Lissa had set out.  
  
Her aunt sat next to her in her yellow dress, and seemed to have been sleeping as well.  “Aw, I was having a nice dream,” she complained, stretching her arms above her head.  “What’s going on?”  
  
“Forgive me M’lord,” the driver of the carriage said.  “There appears to be a storm of some kind up ahead.  But…it’s like no storm I’ve ever seen before.”  Curious, Lucina got up from her seat and slid the carriage door open, peeking her head out.  There was indeed some kind of storm over a nearby village, but the clouds were otherworldly.  Black as night, much like the thunderbolts they brought forth.  It seemed to be dissipating, but the pitch black thunderbolts continued to strike the village.    
  
“Should we see if everything is all right?” the carriage driver asked.    
  
Chrom frowned, sticking his own head out of the carriage  The village couldn’t be more than five minutes away.  “Yes,” he said.  “It’s a small detour.  It shouldn’t be much of a problem.  Tiki has already had to wait two days for us, I’m sure she won’t mind if we have to take a few more hours to get there.  
  
Lucina’s hand tensed over the hilt of Falcion as closed the door to the carriage.  It began to creek forward, heading to the village.  “You don’t think this is the work of the Grimleal do you?” Lisa asked, sounding slightly worried.  “They’re crazy enough to keep going even after they know that Grima is dead.  Or maybe they just never realized he was dead in the first place.  Hey, they're dumb enough.”  
  
Lucina chuckled.  Her aunt always had a way of saying what was on her mind without restraint.  “I don’t think so, this doesn’t look like anything they could conjure up,” Chrom said cautiously.  “That and, to be frank, we’d know if it was them.  They’re many things but subtle was never one of them.  They would’ve tried to burn the town down before they created whatever those clouds were.  No.  I think that this is something different.  I don’t know what it is, but it’s threatening the townspeople.  So we’re going to do what we do best.”    
  
Lissa grinned.  “Beat the bad guys.”  
  
“If there are any,” Chrom said.  “It’d be nice if this was some magical experiment that just produced very weird looking results.  Sadly I don't think we’d ever be that lucky.”  He let out a sigh.  “Either way, we still need to make sure people are safe.”  Lucina nodded.  The soldiers her father led didn’t call themselves the Shepherds for nothing.  
  
“We’re here M’lord,” the driver said.  Lucina slid the door to the carriage open again, stepping out and drawing Falcion.  Her aunt and father were right behind her, Chrom wielding his own Falcion and Lissa a staff in one hand and tomb in the other.  They were just outside the town, which seemed oddly deserted.  The clouds above gave one last feeble crack of lightning before disappearing like puffs of smoke.  
  
“At least that’s gone,” Lucina said gratefully.  “But where is everyone?  It’s the middle of the day, there should be at least a few people outside.  As if to answer her question, someone screamed.  A scream of terror and pain, coming from the center of the village.  The three of them didn't need to look at each other, they all knew they were thinking the same thing.  Without a word, they all broke into a run  
  
A rather pleasant smell found its way to Lucina’s nostrils, which proved to be a rather disorienting feeling when combined with her heart pounding.  Eventually they found themselves in the center of the village.  A feast had been laid out, a rather humble affair of soup, bread and a few roasts, but there was enough of it to feed the entire village.  Tables and chairs had apparently been brought from all over the village for it.  Tables and chairs that now were filled with bodies.  
  
Lucina looked on in horror.  At least two dozen people were lying dead at the feast tables.  Some of them were still in their chairs, others were sprawled across the table.  A few were a couple of feet away from the tables, lying face down in the grass.  All of them were soaked in blood, wide open wounds in their bodies.  There was another scream.  
  
She snapped her head and saw a man crawling on the ground, an arrow sticking out of the back of his leg.  “Please!” he sobbed.  “Anyone!  Help!”  He was being chased.  A figure in armor was right behind him, carrying a battered shield and spear.  The figure seemed to stumble as it walked forward, moving slowly.  It was undoubtly staring directly at the wounded man however, its spear outstreched.  
  
Lucina didn’t need to think.  She darted forward, swinging Falcion in a single powerful stroke.  The figure saw and attempted to react, but its actions were slow and sluggish.  In the seconds before the blade connected with its throat, Lucina saw the figures face behind the half helm it wore.  It was a man, or at least it had once been.  His skin stretched tight over his skull, gaunt and sunken, a sickly shade of red.  His expressions were sunken, to the point where his face could be mistaken for a skull at a distance.  He looked like a corpse on its feet, the only thing indicating that it was still alive being its eyes.  The seemed to glow, like a smoldering fire.  
  
Lucina looked down at the head as it hit the ground.  When she thought of walking corpses, Risen were the first thing that came to mind.  This thing looked nothing like a Risen, which tended to be very dark and sometimes had a black aura around them.  This creature she had slain looked like it had been mummified and moved much slower than any Risen she had known.  What was it?  Where had it come from?  
  
“T-thank you,” the man on the ground spluttered.  “T-they came out of nowhere!  We were wondering what those clouds were and those things just started killing us!”  
  
“Hold still!” Lissa said, kneeling down next to the man.  “I can heal this wound, but the arrow needs to come out first.  Otherwise my magic will just close the wound around it.”  
  
“W-what about the others?” the man said.  “A lot of them got away and ran.  They headed for the  church.  We don’t have any weapons though!  If they-AGH!”  The man screamed in horror.  More of the shambling corpses were walking out of the gaps between the buildings.  They looked horribly ramshackle.  One or two were in full armor, but most only had a few pieces and some didn’t even have that, wearing just a few tattered pieces of clothing.  Nonetheless, all of them had weapons of some kind.  Axes, swords and spears were all bared at them.  
  
“Lucina,” Chrom said quickly.  “There could still be people alive at the church.  Get there as fast as you can and save whoever is left.  I’ll stay here with your aunt so that she can treat this man.  Quick!”  Lucina didn’t need to be told twice.  She dashed forward, swiping at one of the corpses who had tried to lung at her, slicing his gut open.  She weaved between the buildings, finding the corpses of a couple more villagers along the way.  
  
Her heart sank as she saw all the dead.  They were supposed to be living in peaceful times, yet it looked like the half of the village had been butchered when they had been trying to hold a feast.  One of the corpses laid sprawled on the ground here or there, but for the most part the dead she passed were the villagers.  
  
She spotted the church, a good story taller than the other buildings.  It wasn’t that far away, only a few houses were between her and her destination.  Just as she realized this, a noise reached her.  Clanging, the sound of metal hitting metal.  “Is someone fighting back?” she whispered.  That didn’t make any sense.  The man had said that the village didn’t have any weapons.  She rounded the last corner.  In front of the church, two people in armor stood, both wielding shields and sword.  
  
With a pang, she realized that at least a dozen of the walking corpses were swimming them and they were slowly being pushed back.  They were now on the front steps of the church, slowly losing ground.  A trio of spears thrust forward, one of the warriors attempted to block it with their shield but one got through.  Lucina charged forward as she heard the warrior cry out in pain.  Gritting her teeth she swung Falchion with all her might at the exposed backs of the corpses.  
  
She tore through the torso of one, who quickly fell to the ground.  Many of the other corpses turned to look at the noise, which proved to be their undoing.  One of them had a sword thrust directly into its throat, where as another was stabbed so forcefully in the gut that the tip of the sword came out of his back.    
  
The next minute was a blur to Lucina as she viciously swung Falchion at the corpses.  She found herself constantly moving, trying to desperately stay out of arms reach of the corpses before swinging again.  The two warriors had broken through the line of corpses and were doing the same, their swords constantly swinging as they maneuvered and dodged.  After what seemed like a very long time, all of the corpses were dead.  Lucina panted, looking down at the pile of bodies that she and the other two had managed to create.  
  
“Thank you.”  Lucina looked at the warriors.  Their armor was like nothing she had ever seen before, one having an odd symbol of the sun painted on while the other had blue and gold cloth stretched over the chest plate.  “They were slowly overwhelming us,” the one with the sun on his chest said.  “We might have been able to win, but that’s not a chance I would’ve been happen to take.”  
  
“Are there any villagers nearby?” Lucina asked, hastily looking around.  She couldn’t see any, yet she couldn’t see any bodies either.  
  
“They barricaded themselves in there,” the other warrior said in a somewhat gruff but noticeably feminine voice.  “They were like that when we got here, we got caught up in the fighting before we even knew what was going on.”  She let out a tired sigh.  “No one to act as guards.  Looks like these people were never expecting the Hollows to come here.”  
  
“Hollows?” Lucina said.  “Is that what those things were?”  
  
The woman looked at Lucina, as if she had just asked a very strange question.  “Yes.  People who have been consumed by the Darksign.”  
  
“The what?” Lucina asked.  Before she could get an answer however, there was a loud snarling noise.  She looked just in time to see a pair of dogs, unhealthy thin and with dirty matted fur, charge out from behind a nearby house.  That was not the most pressing concern however.  What made Lucina’s eyes widen in terror was the massive figure that was right behind them.  
  
The two dogs were on the woman before she could properly react.  A jaw closed around each leg and she recoiled backward, off balance.  Before she could recover, the large figure was upon her.  In each hand it held a sword just as long as Lucina, and it swung both of them in unison.  Time seemed to slow down as Lucina watched what happened in utter horror.  The force of the two blades ripped through the side of the woman, not slowing down in the slightest as it tore through the armor.  A second later, the blade broke free and the woman fell.  She had been completely bisected.  She was silent as the two halves of her body hit the ground, before, to Lucina’s horror and confusion, both parts exploded into a cloud of ash.  
  
She forced herself to focus as the dogs pounced, one of them heading for her.  Timing her blow just right, she swung Falcion into the dog’s side and sent it flying into a wall, its body limp.  She glanced to the side to see the surviving warrior pulling his sword out of the top of the other dog, which wasn’t moving.  
  
With both dogs dead, Lucina turned her attention to the figure.  It almost looked human in some ways, but its face was anything but.  It was twisted and narrow, a sickly yellow color with bright red pinpricks for eyes, and pure black horns on either side.  “Capra Demon,” she heard the warrior whisper.  
  
The Capra Demon eyed the two of them, hands tightening on both of its blades.  Lucina eyed them warily.  With a single blow those weapons had managed to cleave straight through full plate armor.  “Go to the right, I’ll go to the left,” she whispered to the other warrior.  She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye.  The two of them moved in different directions, weapons at the ready as they started to encircle the demon.  It must have realized what they were trying to do, as its head jerked back and forth between the two of them before lunging at Lucina.    
  
It brought the first blade down with an overhead strike, one that Lucina barely sidestepped before she lunged forward.  She drove Falcion into the Capra Demon’s chest, tearing through its bare flesh, but the demon didn’t react to the wound at all.  Instead roaring or even flinching, its small red eyes looked down, focusing on her.  She pulled her sword back out just as the demon swung his second blade, this one horizontally.  Lucina swung Falcion around, barely getting it between her and the giant weapon.  Falcion was unbreakable, which kept the demon from tearing into her, but the force of the blow still slammed her into the wall of the church.  
  
Lucina grit her teeth and willed herself to fight through the pain throbbing in her body.  The Capra Demon held both of its blades together, raising them up and preparing to strike.  Lucina was weighing her options of putting some distance between the two of them and attacking when the sun warrior darted at the demon from the side, slashing at its right arm.  The demon whirled around, blood spewing from the deep wound on its arm that had been left, swinging both of its blades at its new attacker.  The sun warrior raised his wooden shield and took the attack head on, but the sheer force of the blow that impacted him knocked him off of his feet.  
  
Lucina spotted white in the open gash and realized that the warrior’s blade had hit bone.  Not wanted to risk another attack to the torso that the demon might not register, she charged at the arm, bringing Falcion down on the gash.  The demon had been moving to attack the sun warrior while he was down, and had its back to her when she attacked.  The blow cut deep into the arm, a sickening cracking noise of breaking bone filling Lucina’s ears as she raised Falcion and struck again.  The blade tore through the bone and the flesh that was left, and she enjoyed a small moment of satisfaction as the demon’s right arm fell to the ground.  
  
Unlike the chest wound, however, the demon reacted to this.  A roar of rage erupted from its mouth as it spun to face Lucina, wildly swinging its remaining arm and blade.  Lucina hastily stepped back, blocking the blows with Falchion as best she could.  The strikes were not as powerful as the one that had sent her into a wall, yet they were still strong enough to make her afraid that the next one would send Falchion flying out of her hands.  The Capra Demon swung his blade the way most men wielded short swords, yet every time their blades clashed, the force was so strong Lucina felt as if her shoulders would be ripped out of their sockets.  
  
Then, one blow knocked her blow too far to the side for it to get in position for the next one.  An overhead strike came down, and Lucina threw herself to the side to get out of the way.  She only mostly made it.  She had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from screaming as the demon’s sword sliced through the edge of her left leg, causing her to overbalance.    
  
She hit the grass, eyes watering in pain, and saw the demon advancing on her.  She tried to pull herself to her feet, but when she tried to put weight on her bad leg, she yelped as she felt a spasm of pain and fell to her knees.  The demon was upon her then, swinging its blade down to decapitate her.  Lucina did the only thing that she could and rolled towards the demon, the giant sword burying itself in the ground where she had been seconds ago.  
  
With as much force as she could from her position, she hacked into the back of one of the demon’s ankles.  It stumbled like she had and fell to one knee.  Lucina was frantically trying to think how she was going to follow up that move when the sun warrior appeared in her field of vision, charging at the demon.  His sword found its mark in the demon’s throat, the edge cutting it wide open.  The demon growled, or rather gurgled as it tried to stand up and strike back.  
  
Lucina noticed that the demon was trying to put its weight on the leg she hadn’t injured.  Pushing herself up onto her uninjured knee, she gripped Falcion in both hands and thrust downward.  The demon’s ankle was torn open, causing it to stumble once again as the sun warrior swung again.  With the wound he had already made, the sun warrior’s sword dug deeper into the demon’s throat until it was stuck halfway through.  The demon did not reply to this.  It stared directly straight ahead, its beady eyes blank, until it slowly began to tilt forward and fall to the ground.  A silver streak flew out of it as it did, fading into the sun warrior’s chest.  
  
Lucina gasped in pain, leaning against the wall of the church and looking down at her leg.  A good chunk of it was missing, exposing a few tendons and even a bit of bone.  She fought back the urge to vomit as she looked at it.  She had to act fast.  “My aunt is back the direction I came from,” the said to the sun warrior hastily.  “She’s a healer.  Please, go get her and bring her back, I need her to take care of my leg.”  
  
Instead of doing that, the sun warrior instead sheathed his sword and knelt down in front of Lucina, taking out what looked like a small talisman.  She was about to shout at him when a bright golden light emanated from the talisman, engulfing it and her leg.  The pain in her leg vanished, and in a few seconds the light faded away.  Looking down, she saw that her leg had completely healed.  “Thank you,” she said in amazement, standing up and testing the leg.  It didn’t even ache.    
  
“We both helped each other a great deal just now,” the sun warrior said warmly, getting to his feet.  “Alone, we most likely would’ve perished against the Capra Demon.  I’ve fought one of their number before, they’re dreadfully powerful beasts.  Allow me to introduce myself.  I’m Solaire of Astoria.”  
  
Lucina blinked.  She had never heard of a land called Astoria before.  Some distant kingdom maybe?  “Lucina,” she replied, sheathing Falcion as she did.  At Solaire’s words about perishing, Lucina felt a twinge of guilt.   “I’m sorry about your friend,” she said.  “I wish I could’ve done something.”  
  
“Oh, it’s no worry,” Solaire said cheerfully.  “I know Fare.  She’s been through worse.  It’ll be tough to recover from but she’ll do it like she always does.”  
  
Lucina wanted to hug Solaire.  “The poor man is in denial,” she thought.  “He thinks that she’s just hurt and that she’ll spring right back.”  She didn’t have the heart to break it to him that he would never see his friend again.  “Are the villagers all right?” she asked.  “Nothing happened during the fight?”  
  
“I don’t think so,” Solaire said.  He ascended the handful of steps to the church and rapped on the door.  “Hello!  All you all right in there?  It should be safe to come out now!”  
  
“Go away!” a terrified voice shouted back.  “If we open the door, they’ll get us!  They’ll get us all!”  
  
“Ah,” Solaire said, taking a few steps back and glancing at Lucina.  “They seem to be in a state of panic.  It might be for the best if we give them time to calm down.”  
  
“My father was fighting a few more of those Hollows in the center of the village.  They were spread out so I think he could’ve handled them without too much trouble.  Aside from those, are there anymore nearby?” Lucina asked.  
  
Solaire paused for a second before shaking his head.  “I’m certain the majority of them were gathered here at the church.  They are drawn to humans after all, they wouldn’t just wander aimlessly around when there were so many concentrated here.”  
  
Lucina nodded.  She had to take Solaire’s word for it, having no experience of her own with these Hollows.  “Still, I would like to head back to make sure my father is safe.”  
  
“Allow me to accompany you,” Solaire said cheerfully.  “In times like these, it is always good to have a friendly sword nearby.”  
  
Lucina gave a weak smile.  “I can’t argue with that.”  On that note, the two of them began to make their way back to the center of the village.  Lucina found herself staring at the bodies of the villagers as she passed them a second time.  “Where did those Hollows even come from?” she asked.  “Why did they slaughter all these people?”  
  
“I’m afraid I don’t know myself,” Solaire said.  “I’m not even sure how Fare and I came to be here.  Nothing was out of the ordinary except for those dark clouds.”  
  
“Dark clouds?” Lucina asked.  “There were some here, just now!  They were over the village before we got here.”  
  
“There were?” Solaire said, sounding surprised.  “Hm.  Very interesting.  I cannot say what it could mean just yet, but it gives me ideas.”  As he spoke, the two of them reached the clearing with the feast tables.  Half a dozen Hollows lay dead on the ground and Chrom and Lissa were standing over the wounded villager, whom they had laid out on one of the tables.  
  
“The others!” the man said, snapping into a sitting position as Lucina neared.  “Are they all right?”  
  
“There’s a large group that’s barricaded themselves in the church,” Lucina said reassuringly.  “They won’t come out there.”  
  
The man sighed in relief.  “Thank Naga.”  
  
“Your leg should be fine,” Lissa said, looking over the now fully healed leg with a close eye.  “Still, after what you’ve been through you should probably take it easy for different reasons.”  
  
“Lucina, who’s that?” Chrom asked.  
  
“Solaire,” Lucina answered.  “He helped me fight off the Hollows in front of the church, that’s what these things are called.”  
  
“Pleasure to meet you,” Solaire said politely.  “I-“ his attention trailed off as he spotted something.  “Ah, perfect.  Forgive my rudeness sir, but there is something I must attend to.”  He strode to the feast table, behind Chrom and Lissa.  There, a fair distance away, was a dimly crackling fire with a rust sword embedded in the middle.  Solaire sat down directly in front of it, legs crossed, and took his helmet off.  
  
“Was that always there?” Lissa asked.  “Were the townspeople trying to have fried longsword?”  
  
“I’ve never seen that before,” the villager said, looking at it.  
  
“Uh, Solaire, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it that you’re doing exactly?” Chrom asked, sounding very confused.  
  
“Oh, my good friend Fare should be back soon,” Solaire said matter of factly.  “I want to greet her, she’ll most likely have been through a lot.”  
  
Lucina bit her lip.  She had to tell him, otherwise he might sit in front of that little fire all day waiting for a dead woman.  Slowly approaching Chrom, she whispered “Father.  He’s lost a friend.  Please, just let me talk to him.”  Her father’s eyes widened, but he only nodded.  She walked across the clearing to Solaire, wondering how to approach this delicate situation.  Reaching him, she hesitated before putting a hand on his shoulder.  “Solaire,” she said.  “I know what it feels like to see someone you care about die.”  She was about to continue, but the rest of the words died in her mouth.  
  
Something was flickering in front of the tiny fire.  It quickly grew until it eclipsed the fire itself within seconds, becoming a shimmering mass of fire.  Lucina’s first thought was to try and run and find some water before the unthinkable happened.  An armored hand reached out.  It grabbed a handful of the grass and gave a mighty tug.  A person came out of the fire, using the grass as an anchor to pull themselves forward before falling flatly on the grass.  The armored person panted heavily and desperately as the fire disappeared, leaving only the small fire.  Lucina’s mind went blank.  It was the woman she had seen cut in half mere minutes ago.  
  
“Solaire,” she croaked, her voice dry and raspy.  “Humanity.  Please.”  As she spoke, she desperately fumbled with her helmet and unlatched it.  Another shock crashed over Lucina as she saw Fare’s face.  The same red raw skin, the same sunken facial expressions and the same dimly glowing eyes as the Hollows.  Without a helmet obstructing her sight, she also spotted short filthy hair, some of which looked like it had been singed off.  Her hand gripped Falchion’s hilt, but paused when Solaire reached into a pouch and produced, not a weapon, but a strange speck.  It seemed to be entirely black at first, but as she stared she noticed that it had a rather eerie looking white outline around it.  
  
Fare took the speck and crushed it in the palm of her hand.  Almost instantaneously, she changed.  The telltale signs of a Hallow disappeared as if they had been wiped away by a cloth.  Her skin turned from red to a very deep but healthy looking brown, her singed hair became short and black, although rather messy, the sunken features were replaced with rough chiseled ones, and the glowing eyes were replaced by those of dull amber.  
  
Fare panted, pulling herself into a sitting position.  “Did you kill it?” she asked.  Solaire nodded.  “Good, I don’t think I could stand another fight with that thing,” she said sourly.  “That one was pure misery, just like its brother in Undeadburg.  It’s those dogs they always seem to have around.  They get one good bite in and it just finishes you off with one stroke.”  She ground her teeth.  “Little bastards.”  
  
Lucina found her voice.  “How?” she rasped.  “I saw you die.  How are you here?”  
  
Fare looked at Lucina, blinking in confusion.  “You don’t know?” she asked.  “ I thought you might just have a different word for Hollows around here, but you really don’t know about the Undead?”  Lucina shook her head.  “That can’t be,” Fare whispered in disbelief.  She grabbed the gauntlet on her right hand, pulling it off and showing her bare palm to Lucina.  “Does this mean anything to you?  You must have seen it, no matter how isolated your kingdom would be, you must know what this is.”  
  
Lucina stared at the woman’s hand.  There was a circle there, which looked like the person who had left it there had wavered back and forth as he had drawn it.  Despite this, the lines that would normally look crooked matched up perfectly, making the circle look perfect in a way.  It seemed to be glowing on her skin, a red thin line.  “What is that?”  
  
“The Darksign,” Fare said.  She lowered her palm and looked at it, dumbstruck.  “How could anyone not know what the Darksign is?”  She shook her head.  “Do you have a map?  Those clouds brought us here.  Solaire and I don’t actually know where we are.  Could you show us?  We must’ve traveled to the other side of the world if you don’t know what the Darksign is.”  
  
Lucina looked over her shoulder, but Lissa had already heard.  She brought a worn brown map of the world and laid it out in front of Fare.  Lucina looked down at it, her eyes flying to Valm.  It was possible that something had happened there and word hadn’t made its way to Ylisee yet.  That would make sense.  “We’re here,” Lucina said, shifting her eyes back to Ylisse, pressing her finger on the southern part of the continent.  “Where are you from?”    
  
She looked up.  Instead of Fare’s eyes moving to Valm like Lucina had expected, her eyes went blank.  “What is this?” she mumbled, sounding lost.  “I don’t recognize anything.  Where’s the Great Swamp?   Where’s Lordran?  The Asylum?”  
  
“What are you talking about?” Lucina asked.  She could feel her mind ache as she tried to understand this situation.  Nothing that either of these two had talked about made any sense.  They kept bringing up things and places that Lucina had never heard of and couldn’t possible exist.  “There’s no Great Swamp.”  
  
“This isn’t right,” Fare said, sounding as if she was deep in thought.  “One moment.”  She reached onto her back and saw that a moderate sized wooden box was hanging there.  Judging by the way that she easily unlatched it and placed it on the ground with one hand, it was very light. Lucina just thinking that the box couldn’t hold much when Fare undid the latch and opened it, plunging her hand into the box far deeper than it should realistically have allowed.  It couldn’t be more than a few inches tall, yet Fare’s arm disappeared into it up to her shoulder.  “Where did I put it,” she muttered.  “Ah, here it is.”  She withdrew her hand, pulling a yellowed, wrinkled and slightly torn piece of paper.  
  
Smoothing it out, Fare placed her map next to Lissa’s.  Lucina’s eyes fell upon it.  The words of places she didn’t know covered it.  Astoria, Carim, Vinheim, Lordran, Oolacile.  Her gazed lingered on the last one.  At first glance it looked like someone had spilled ink all over it, but the entire country had been filled with a solid black mass with no noticeable splotches.  It looked to be intentional, as the filling stopped at the borders to the country and not so much as a drop went beyond.  
  
Lucina finally understood why Fare had looked so confused as she examined the map.  Her map and Lissa’s map were completely different, they didn’t have a single thing in common.  Lissa gapped at the maps.  “Please tell me Chrom packed a fake map as a joke,” she said.  
  
Lucina shook her head.  “I’ve seen this map a hundred times, it’s the real one.”  She rubbed the side of her head.    
  
“Then how?” Fare asked, “How is this possible?  Where are we?”  
  
“I think I have an idea,” Chrom said, approaching the group.  “I think you might have stumbled into a different Outrealm.”  Chrom pressed on, seeing the confused expression on Fare’s face.  “Outrealms are worlds onto themselves.  In a way, they’re different possibilities, different paths that the world could’ve taken.  A lot of the Outrealms that we’ve been to have been similar to our own world, but them being radically different is perfectly possible.”  
  
Fare leaned back, looking dazed.  “Is any of this even possible?” she asked.  
  
“I think it is,” Solaire said.  For some reason he didn’t sound as overwhelmed by this as Fare did, thought he did sound a little shaken.  “Remember what I told you when we first met?  Time is convoluted in Lordran.  It seems that space is as well now.”  
  
“The Abyss,” Fare said, understanding dawning on her face.  “That’s how this happened.”  She leaned forward.  “Did you see anything out of the ordinary around this village?”  
  
“She did,” Solaire said.  “She saw the same dark clouds that were hovering over Anor Londo.  She told me.  It seems that you’re right, the Abyss is what brought us here.  It most likely is what brought the Hollows and the Capra Demon here as well.”  
  
Fare grimaced.  “That means that those storms of Abyss aren’t just in Anor Londo.  How fast is it spreading?”  
  
“Hold on, Abyss?” Lucina asked.  
  
“A force of darkness, pure concentrated darkness,” Fare said.  “It’s been threatening our…well our world I suppose for as long as we can remember.  Lord Gwyn was the second strongest of the Lords who defeated the Stone Dragons long ago, and he was terrified of it.  So much that he sacrificed an entire city to stop it.”  She pressed down on her map, pointing out a city named New Anor Londo.  Lucina saw that, like Oolacile, it had been filled with ink.  “The rulers of New Anor Londo tried to master the Abyss, and its servants threatened to overwhelm the city.  Fearing it couldn’t be stopped with soldiers, Lord Gwyn had the city flooded.”  
  
“Gods,” Chrom swore.  “He sacrificed his own people?  How could he?”  
  
Solaire shook his head sadly.  “The powers of the Abyss are beyond comprehension.  I do not agree with what Gwyn did, but I cannot think of any other way that he could’ve ensured that the Abyss did not spread from New Anor Londo.  The sad truth that the New Anor Londo incursion of the Abyss was the first of two incidents, and it was easily the much tamer one.”  
  
“You’re talking about Oolacile aren’t you?” Lucina asked, pointing it out on the map.  
  
“Noticed that I see,” Fare said.  “Yes.  Gwyn was able to contain the spread of the Abyss to New Anor Londo by flooding it, a great tragedy and hardly something to be proud of, but he spared all of Lordran from Oolacile’s fate.  It consumed the entire land, the entire civilization from being wiped out.  Gwyn sent one of his greatest champions, Artorias the Abysswalker, to contain it.”  She let out a bitter sigh.  “Artorias fell in Oolacile.  No one really knows what happened to him there, only that he never came back.  And he was present at New Anor Londo, he managed to keep the Abyss at bay until it was flooded.”  
  
“But then, what stopped the Abyss in Oolacile?” Lissa asked.  
  
“Gwyn claimed that Artorias vanquished it with his dying breath,” Solaire said.  “But I have a hard time believing that.  I cannot say why, it simply doesn’t feel right.”  
  
“Where did this thing even come from?” Lucina asked, her head straining under the weight of everything that she was absorbing.  
  
“We don’t know where, but we do know why,” Fare said.  She pointed to the crackling fire.  “These bonfires aren’t ordinary fires.  They’re linked to the First Flame.  The flame where the Lords found our power, and life was birthed from.”  She swallowed.  “The First Flame is dying.  The bonfires are dying.  When they grew weak is when the Abyss first appeared.  Before the fall of the Stone Dragons, there wasn’t light but there wasn’t darkness either.  It’s possible the Abyss came into existence alongside the First Flame.  It’s been threatening our world ever since.  And now, it seems to be threatening your world.”  She lowered her head in shame.  “I’m so sorry,” she said sincerely.  
  
“Wait, why are you apologizing?” Lissa asked.  “You didn’t exactly set it on us.”  
  
“Uh,” Fare said.  She went slightly red in the face as she spoke.  “You see…how do I put this lightly?”  
  
“She was chosen by a prophecy to take the place of Lord Gwyn and bring order back to the world.  She’s the Chosen Undead,” Solaire said simply.  
  
Fare went even redder in the face.  “Yes.  That,” she said.  “But you don’t know what Undead or Hollows are do you?”  Lucina, Chrom and Lissa all shook their heads.  “They’re people who have been branded with the Darksign, what I showed you on my hand.  We don’t know where they came from, but the Abyss is the most likely explanation.  Those with the Darksign can’t die, they’re forced to come back when they die.”  
  
Lucina didn’t say anything.  Not being able to die didn’t sound like much of a curse, but Fare’s body language said otherwise.  Her hands were tightening into fists and her facial expressions look strained, as if she wanted to scream in anger and cry at the same time.  “It’s a horrible experience, to come back,” she said.  “You have to pull yourself back.  Every step of the way feels like your flesh is being torn off, or burned off, I can never remember clearly.  And pulling just makes the pain worse.  Undead like me have to go through this every time we die, until the pain just becomes too much and we give up.”    
  
A look of fear slid across her face.  “An Undead who gives up, who doesn’t pull when they die, becomes a Hollow.  Their sanity is destroyed, who they were is gone, they just exist as a walking corpse.  They attack everyone they see, searching for Humanity on instinct, even though it doesn’t do them any good.  Oh right, you wouldn’t know.  Humanity is what Solaire gave me, it allows Undead to become human again until they die.  It makes the pull easier.”  
  
Lucina sat there, shocked by what she had just heard.  “How do you stand it?” she asked.  
  
“I don’t know,” Fare answered honestly.  “I just tell myself that I need to keep going, that I have a mission.”  She swallowed.  “Every time I’m afraid.  Afraid that I’ll slip, that I’ll just get tired of the pain.  But I need to keep going.  I just have to.”  
  
Solaire put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.  The five of them were silent.  “Now what?” Lissa asked.  
  
“I think I have a hunch about what Tiki wanted to talk to us about,” Chrom said.  “It’s probably to do with this Abyss.”  He looked at Solaire and Fare.  “We’ve dealt with threats that could’ve destroyed the entire world before and one of our friends might already know something about the Abyss.  Maybe we could work together to stop this.”  
  
“Ah!  An excellent idea!” Solaire said brightly.  “We need as many allies as we can get.  Thank you very much for the kind offer.”  
  
Fare interjected.  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said hesitantly.  “I mean, I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the offer, but I’m not sure it’d be safe for any of you.  I’ve died dozens if not hundreds of times on my journeys to fulfill the prophecy.  And while the Darksign makes coming back a miserably painful experience, I CAN come back.  None of you have it.  One slip and you’re gone for good.  And Lordran is like something out of a nightmare.  There are barely any sane people left.  It’s overrun with Hollows, demons and other monsters that lurk around every corner.”  
  
Lucina couldn’t help but feel that this sounded eerily familiar.  It sounded a little too much like the future that she had come from.  “I’m sorry, but it’d be selfish of me to ask you to risk your lives in our fight,” Fare said.    
  
“It’s not exactly just your fight anymore,” Lucina said.  “Those things attacked and killed our people too, we’re involved in it now.”  
  
“Which is why it’d be for the best if you stayed here where you have numbers and familiarity,” Fare argued.  “You need to defend your home.”  
  
“Fare,” Solaire said.  “We need all the help we can get.  You should at least consider it.”  
  
“And if you fail, there’s no one left at all to stop this,” Chrom said.  “Helping you will be protecting our home.”  
  
“It’s still risky,” Fare said, sounding uncertain.  “There’s so much you don’t know about Lordran.”  
  
“Well, you can tell us,” Lissa said.    
  
“At the very least come with us to see our friend,” Lucina said.  “She’s the voice of Naga, the goddess of this world.  
  
Fare paused.  “Voice of the Goddess,” she said.  “Well, there’s no excuse for not listening to her.”    
  
“So, you’re going to let us help you?” Lissa asked eagerly.  
  
“I’ll…think about it,” Fare said.  “Solaire, where did we hide the Lordvessel again?”  
  
“I remember where,” he said.  “Do you mind if we take a little bit of cargo along for the trip?”  
  
“We have some room in the carriage,” Lucina said.  There was still so much that she didn’t understand.  She didn’t know what they were talking about when they brought up Lords and souls and Stone Dragons among other things, but there was one thing she did understand.  Their world was in danger, and the danger was starting to threaten the world her family and friends lived in.  Both reasons were reason enough to want to help, both made it a necessity.  There would be time later to understand the finer details.  
  
“If we go back to Lordran, we’re going to have to come back here,” Fare said.  “Solaire and I can travel from bonfire to bonfire.  This one must’ve been brought here along with us.  Might be a whole bonfire or could just be part of one.  I’m not sure.”  She got to her feet.  “We’ll be right back, we need to get something important we brought with us.”  The two of them began to head off.  Just before the two of them were out of earshot, Lucina heard them talk.  
  
“You said Gwyn was the second most powerful Lord, that’s not how I heard the legend,” Solaire said.  
  
“Well the way I always heard it, the Mother of Fire, the Witch of Izalith was the strongest Lord,” Fare said.    
  
Solaire chuckled.  “I suppose people have biases when it comes to the Lord they favor the most.”  
  
Lucina glanced at her father, smiling weakly.  “Never a dull day in our lives.”  
  
XXXXX  
  
Author’s Note:  It was never established in detail how going Hollow works or how Humanity stops it.  I think the idea of coming back to life being horribly physically painful and having to fight through it was a good way to represent the “Can never give up” concept behind avoiding going Hollow.  Humanity making it easier I find works as well.  I also think Lord Gwyn would want to keep Artorias falling to the Abyss quiet to avoid panic and I doubt there would be too many eye witnesses to the fact who wouldn’t report directly to him.  
  
If I missed anything that needs explanation, please let me know.  
  



	3. Looming Terror

Fare felt her chest clench. She had seen carriages from a distance a few times. Nearby nobles that had visited the Great Swamp always came in carriages. She remembered that they tended to get stuck in the mud, much to the anger of the nobles. She let out a small chuckle before her stomach clenched up again. With the way the nobles had cursed when they had been forced to walk, she had thought that they must be comfortable and pleasant. She had never thought that they would feel so awful.

She was sitting in the back of the carriage that their new friends owned, who had offered her and Solaire a ride. She was starting to wish she had said no. Her body was shaking and she felt like she was going to be sick. Reaching down, she grabbed the hilt of her blade, reassuringly stroking it. It made her feel slightly better, but the bile in her stomach was still there.

"Are you all right?" Fare looked up at the woman sitting across from her. She was the only person in the carriage apart from Lucina and Solaire on the far end, Chrom and Lissa having moved to up front with the driver due to the lack of room. Fare glanced at the giant Lordvessel in Solaire's lap that had caused said lack of space and felt a pang of embarrassment before looking back at the woman.

She had long flowing green hair and oddly pointed ears. She also wore a red dress that Fare had never seen the likes of before, which was short enough to present a rather ample bosom. Fare felt a sliver on comfortableness that had nothing to do with the carriage. "I'm sorry, did I say something?" the woman asked.

This was Tiki, the woman that Chrom, Lucina and Lissa had been on their way to meet. Their stop at this Outrealm Gate where she had been had been short. Only a few words had been spoken before they were back in the carriage, heading back to the village that had been attacked by the Undead. Tiki had said that she had had a theory on what was happening, but that she wanted to see the village first hand before making any conclusions. "Never been in a carriage before," Fare said weakly. "I think I prefer walking. There's no room in here."

"I don't like them much myself. I prefer flying personally," Tiki said kindly.

Fare's mind came to a halt as she processed what she had just heard. "Flying?" she asked hesitantly, certain that she had misheard. Either that or it had been an experience similar to those two times that giant crow had carried her. Though considering both times had made her sick, she wondered how that could possibly be preferable.

"Oh, Chrom didn't tell you?" she asked. She held up a bright green orb that was hanging around her neck by a chain. "I'm a Manakete. I can turn into a dragon. I need to use this Dragonstone to use it though." She looked nervously at Fare. "Do you have anything like Manaketes where you're from?"

"Not exactly," Fare said, looking at the Dragonstone with interest. "The Everlasting Dragons all died a long time ago. The only dragons left are wyverns. Compared to the powerful and intelligent Everlasting Dragons, wyverns are little more than beasts. Though some people say a few descendants of the Everlasting Dragons still survive." She shook her head. "I've never heard of anyone turning into a dragon though. Sounds like something some more desperate sorceries might research though."

"Well, there aren't very many Manaketes either," Tiki said. "We live a very long time, and don't breed very much. But could you tell me more about these Everlasting Dragons? Why aren't they around anymore?"

"If you promise to tell me more about Manaketes," Fare said, the conversation making her forget about the lurching feelings in her stomach.

Tiki smiled. "Well, you're the guest in this world, so I'll go first. For the record, in this world, Manaketes and dragon are interchangeable terms for the most part. There used to be more Manaketes, but most of us died in wars. Some of them were with Humans but just as many were among each other. I think there might be small isolated communities of Manaketes left, but the few who are left live among Humans. Thankfully the two live in peace most of the time, though sometimes there are killings on both sides. One of the greatest tribes of Manaketes were the Divine Dragons. I'm part of that tribe, as is Naga."

Fare tilted her head to the side in confusion, wondering who Naga was. Tiki noticed. "She used to be leader of the Divine Dragons back when they were still strong, but now she mainly watches over Humans, guiding them and protecting them. I act as her voice. The people of this land actually worship her as a god, even though she claims that she isn't." She let out a soft chuckle. "I suppose it's a compliment, to have people show your appreciation for you in such a great way."

Fare chuckled as well. "I'd be rather embarrassed by it. Oh Mother of Fire, I'm already embarrassed being called the Chosen Undead." Tiki blinked in a puzzled manner. "I'll explain when we're done with this," Fare promised. "Please, keep going. I'd like to know more about Naga."

"Right. Well, Naga is famous for many things. The biggest would probably be Chrom's sword Falcion, which was forged from one of Naga's fangs. His daughter Lucina uses the same blade. But she also forged Fire Emblem, a shield to go be wielded with Falcion to unlock it's true power. It was used to finally defeat Grima, the Fell Dragon that wanted to cover the world in darkness."

"Cover the world in darkness. That sounds a little familiar," Fare thought dryly. "So I take it that's one of your ancient legends? This Grima?"

"Oh no, Grima was only defeated three years ago," Tiki said. "It was a rather frightening time. He had entire armies at his beck and call, cultists who worshiped him and dead warriors that rose to fight for him."

"This sounds REALLY familiar," Fare thought. It was actually a little unnerving how much this Grima made her think of the Darksign and the Abyss. "Wait. Are you saying that Chrom killed a dragon that tried to destroy the world?"

"Partially," Tiki said. "He and Lucina scored a dozen blows each. But it was Robin, Chrom's wife and Lucina's mother, who delivered the killing blow. Anything less wouldn't have killed Grima, but sealed him away for 1,000 years. See, Robin was of Grima's blood."

Fare blinked. "I beg your pardon?" she said dumbly.

"Her father was the head of the cult that worshiped Grima," Tiki explained. "He fashioned his daughter to be the vessel of Grima, but her mother took her and ran. Eventually she found Chrom and joined his army, killing her father and Grima in the process." Tiki swallowed and she looked rather distressed. "It almost killed her. They were linked, so in a way she was almost killing herself. By some miracle she survived though."

"And all of this only happened three years ago?" Fare asked. Tiki nodded. "Impressive. Well I suppose it's my turn." She adjusted herself in her seat, digging for the old memories of what she had been told as a child. "The Everlasting Dragons ruled the world in the Age of Ancients. The world hadn't been formed yet, it was rocky and fog. They ruled over that land. Then, we don't know where from, but fire was born. A massive fire, the First Flame, that drew the tiny beings that had lived under the rule of the dragons, not worthy of their attention."

Tiki politely folded her hands in front of her, looking on with interest. It felt very odd to be explaining something that should be common knowledge, but Fare couldn't deny that she enjoyed it very much. After being in the dark on so many matters, it felt very good to share knowledge where she had more expertise. As such, she couldn't help but explain it in a slightly dramatic manner. "In the fire, there were souls, far brighter than any soul before or since, the Lord Souls."

"There were three in total," Fare said. "The Witch of Izalith, the Mother of Fire, and her daughters of Chaos took one. Gwyn and his faithful knights the second. And Nito, the First of the Dead, took the third. They used the power the Lord Souls gave them to challenge the rule of the Eternal Dragons. Even though the Mother of Fire and Nito wielded powerful magic, and Gwyn's army outnumbered the dragons, they still took heavy losses. However, one of the dragons betrayed his kin. Seath the Scaleless. With his help, the Eternal Dragons were slain to the last one."

Tiki looked rather horrified. "He betrayed his entire race? Helped them all be slaughtered? Why would he do that?"

Fare shrugged. "No one knows for sure. Some say it's because Seath was jealous. That the stone scales of the Eternal Dragons were what gave them their immortality. Others say the dragons abused Seath, treated him like an outcast and a lesser being for not having scales. Either way, he had enough hate in him to turn to the side of the Lords." Fare scrapped her seat with her armored hand. This was turning a little more awkward than she had intended. She had been trying to impress Tiki, not horrify her.

"Whatever Seath's reasons were, he didn't share them with the rest of the Lords," Fare said, trying to move the conversation away from Seath's betrayal. "Still, he was treated well by them. Gwyn made Seath a duke for his services and granted him a castle. He even gifted him a shard of his own Lord Soul. In a sense, he made Seath an honorary Lord. With that, there were Four Lords. The four Lords that gave birth to the Age of Fire. In the Age of Ancients there was no civilization, there was only endless rocky plains. The Lords put an end to that, and under their watch, countless cities, kingdoms and societies were born."

Tiki looked impressed, or at the very least like she had moved on from Seath and the hand he had played in genocide. "Naga still watches over the people of this land. I take it your Lords do the same."

Fare felt all of the excitement she had felt drain out of her. "I'd like to think some of them do. But…I've been told I'm supposed to succeed Gwyn, so apparently he's unable to rule anymore. I haven't been told why though, but Gwyn isn't in the capital city and his army is in ruins. Seath has apparently gone mad and hides away in his castle. No one knows anything about Nito, and the Mother of Fire and her daughters have-" Fare stopped mid sentence.

Her entire body clenched up and Tiki faded from her sight. She wasn't in the carriage anymore, she was in a dark rocky cavern. An upside down head was in front of her, clinging to its neck by a thin sliver of flesh. It smiled a twisted smile at her. "Murderer."

"Fare? FARE!" Everything came rushing back. She had slumped back into her seat. She could feel tears running down her cheeks. There was a horrible feeling in her stomach. A feeling of complete and utter emptiness. Tiki was standing over her, her eyes wide and her hands on Fare's shoulders. "What happened?" Tiki asked with concern, stepping back as Fare sat back up. "You just collapsed in your seat. I heard some odd gurgling noises. Are you ok?"

Fare instinctively reached to wipe the tears away, only for her hand to be stopped with a soft clank. She was still wearing her helmet, with the visor down. Tiki hadn't seen her tears. Fare looked at the Manakete woman. "I…" she said hesitantly. She couldn't. She couldn't tell Tiki. She couldn't tell anyone. How was she supposed to admit that she had committed deicide? Not just to Tiki, but to anyone. Even Solaire. "I'm sorry, it's the carriage," Fare lied. "I'm not good with enclosed spaces. They make me feel nervous." The last part was true enough.

"Do you need a drink? Lucina, where do you keep your waterskins?" Tiki asked, glancing at the blue haired warrior. Fare realized at that point that both Solaire and Lucina were looking in their direction. She spoke before Lucina could open her mouth.

"No, that's ok. I haven't had to eat or drink for some time now. The Bonfires and Estus sustain me," she said. "Why did I let this happen?" she thought. The horrible empty feeling was still in her stomach, but it was joined by anger at herself. "Why did you even mention the daughters of the Mother of Fire? What right do YOU of all people have to talk about them?"

"You don't?" Lucina asked, sounding surprised.

Solaire nodded. "The Bonfires gave us everything. The strength to carry on without food is surprisingly one of its more mundane accomplishments."

"Anyway, like I was saying," Fare said, looking back at Tiki. "The Mother of Fire and her daughters are a mystery, like Nito no one knows where they are. You'll forgive me, I got rather upset to admit it. My homeland of the Great Swamp worshiped the Mother of Fire and her daughters more closely than the other Lords. We don't call her that name lightly you see, she's the one who created the art of Pyromancy, the manipulation of fire. Pyromancy was part of our everyday lives, so we felt a rather special connection to her." She feeling in her stomach got worse. She didn't want to talk about the Mother of Fire anymore. Something else, anything else, just not this.

Tiki blinked. "I thought you said that you felt that way because of the carriage."

Fare could've sworn that her heart had stopped for a second. "It was both," she said, trying not to speak too quickly. "What with everything that happened today, me being brought here, the fighting at the village and now being cramped in here all together was just too much to handle." Tiki nodded hesitantly. She didn't look very convinced by Fare's explanation, but she didn't pursue it any further. Fare was very grateful for that.

"Your world's history sounds very interesting," Tiki said politely.

"It is," Lucina said, smiling brightly. "I hope you don't mind but I was listening in. Solaire offered to tell me himself but things would just get a little out of hand if you and he kept repeating yourselves. I imagine even retelling a tale as epic as the battles fought by the heroes of old get rather stale when you have to explain them for the hundredth time."

Fare chuckled. The image of Quelaag was slowly vanishing from her mind and she felt slightly better now. Only slightly however. "You don't have time to dwell on that, you need to keep pressing forward," she told herself. "Yes, I imagine that it would," she said. Right now she was just glad that the conversation had moved forward. She didn't want to think about Quelaag anymore. Truth be told, she didn't really feel much like talking at all.

She felt rather clammy, as if she had just emerged from a pool of chilly water. Right now she just wanted to be left alone. It wasn't that she didn't like anyone in the carriage, they all seemed like nice people. She just felt the need to be alone right now.

Just then, the carriage came to a halt. "We're back at the village," Lucina said, getting to her feet. The others followed her lead, checking their weapons to make sure they still had them. "Tiki, what exactly do you need to do?"

"Did the black storm you saw leave any visible marks on the ground?" Tiki asked. Lucina shook her head. "I see. Well then, I'll just have to examine the bodies of those creatures you fought. I'm well over three-thousand years old. I might have spent the majority of that time in a spell induced sleep, but I still know more than most do about this world. I just want to check to make sure that they're really from another."

Fare felt the urge to insist that they really were, but she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth. She watched silently as Tiki slid open the door to the carriage. The last thing she wanted was attention brought back on her. She shook her head. The only thing that she could think about right now was heading straight back to the village's bonfire and bathing in its warm glow. At the very least, it would make her feel a little better.

"I'm telling you this is a misunderstanding!" a voice called out. "I never murdered anyone!"

"Well this man says you did!" a gruff female voice replied.

"Yes!" a third voice said. "I recognize that armor! There were two warriors defending us earlier, and one of them was wearing it. I'd recognize it anywhere! Same cloth, same size, he's even got the same shield! I don't know what he did with her sword but everything else matches!"

"You're insane!" the first man called out. "I've had this armor for years! I paid for it myself! Same with the shield! Instead of questioning me why I have my own armor, you should be smelling that man's leg! With the way he's talking I'm certain it smells like death! Start sharpening your knife and cut it off it before the corruption spreads if you want to save his life!"

All feeling, even the horrible feeling in her stomach, was washed away as Fare heard that voice. Shock and disbelief replaced them. Scrambling out of the carriage, she took in the scene. A woman with bright red hair and armor of the same color was mounted on a horse, a spear tight in hand, and the same villiager who had been shot with an arrow in the leg was sitting next to her. Behind them, Fare could see that the slain Hollows had been covered in pitch and were now burning in a pile. The air around it was thick with smoke, and a sickening smell was emanating from the pile. Despite fall this, Fare's eyes only lingered for a second before coming to rest on the third person who had spoken.

A knight dressed in steel armor with blue and golden cloth hanging from it, a shield and longsword in his hands. The armor and the shield were the exact same as Fare's. She took a step forward, not believing her eyes. "O-oscar?" she said hesitantly. "Oscar of Astora?"

"Finally, someone who recognizes I'm not a common thief," Oscar said, turning to look at Fare. "Could you please tell this woman that I-" he stopped mid-sentence as he took Fare in fully. His helmet concealed his face, but Fare was willing to bet that his eyes were wide with shock. "How?" he asked dumbly. Crossing the distance between them, Oscar stared directly at Fare's armor.

"It looks exactly like mine. The cloth. The colors." Reaching out, he gently touched a small chink in the plating that covered Fare's shoulder. Pulling back, he then touched his own shoulder in the same place. The exact same chink was there. "How?" he asked again.

Fare swallowed. After what Oscar had done for her, he deserved the truth. "I took this armor off of your corpse," she said bluntly. "I went back to the Undead Asylum, you were Hollowed. You and I fought and I slew you. I needed new armor and a new shield and yours were still in good condition." She stared directly at Oscar's visor. "I saw you Hollowed. There's no recovering from that. How are you here right now?"

Oscar took a few steps back in horror. "You must have mistaken me for someone else," he said, sounding terrified. "I fully admit that I was making my way to the Undead Asylum, but I had barely been there for half an hour before I was caught in some strange storm and ended up here."

"Where you going to drop a key into one of the cells?" Fare asked intently. "Were you trying to let them out? And where you there because one of the prophecy in your family about the Chosen Undead?"

Oscar looked at Fare in stunned silence. "How did-"

"Because I was the one you let out of that cell," Fare said, her throat feeling very tight as she continued to talk. "You even gave me my Estus Flask. You asked me to carry on in your place before…before you died." A heavy silence hung between the two of them. She looked at the ground, feeling ashamed. "I found you Hollowed when I went back to the Asylum and took your shield and armor. I'm sorry."

"But-but how?" Oscar spluttered. "I never got close to that cell! And I haven't been scratched! How can-"

"It's easily explainable," Solaire said, taking a few steps forward and stopping next to Fare. "Time is convoluted in Lordran. Even more so in the Abyss. We were brought here by the same storm that brought you here. It's very likely that these storms stretch across time itself. It's a rather complicated situation, I promise to explain it to you in full when we have the time."

"I was killed? I went Hollow?" Oscar said quietly. "How?"

"The Asylum was guarded by a giant demon," Fare said. "I didn't see it myself, but the room I found you in was sealed off from the outside and there was a hole in the roof. I think it smashed you through the roof." She could still remember Oscar lying in a pile of rubble, his blood leaking out of the dented armor. She had managed to get it repaired by Andre, but every time she looked at it she could remember exactly where the marks had been.

"I had been prepared to die. I knew my mission was dangerous," Oscar said glumly. "But I had hoped that I would've been able to accomplish something of significance before I did. From what you said, all I did was free a single prisoner. While noble, it falls short of what I originally-wait a minute."

Oscar's head jolted up to look directly at Fare, who jumped a little at the sudden movement. "Thou who art Undead, art chosen," he said, practically tripping over his own words in his haste. "In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords. When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know. You said I told you to take up my journey. You would've gone to Lordran from the Undead Asylum. Did you make it there? Did you ring the Bell of Awakening?"

Fare hesitated. "Yes. I was told that apparently I'm the Chosen Undead. The one to succeed Gwyn and bring light back to Lordran."

Oscar looked directly at Fare, not saying anything. Then, without warning, he let out a cry of pure joy. "YES!" he cried out. "I knew it! I knew if I went to the Asylum I'd find who was chosen!" He reached out and grasped Fare's hand in both of his. "Thank you so much my lady. If I really did die and go Hollow, I'd happily do it a thousand times over if it meant I truly did set the chosen on their rightful path!"

Fare, in spite of the awkwardness of the sudden contact Oscar, couldn't help but smile. A soothing warm feeling was bubbling through her at Oscar's happiness, and for the first time she couldn't help but feel a little proud to call herself the Chosen Undead.

"Pardon me, some of us don't know what the Hell you're talking about." The red haired woman was still watching Oscar from her horse, looking very annoyed. "So he's not a thief, some weird crap happened. Fine. Now can you explain said weird crap?"

"Long story short, they're from an Outrealm," Chrom said. "A storm of darkness brought them here."

"Damn, they're happening out here too?" the woman said. "The whole reason I came out here was to tell you that something like that had happened back at the capital. Some sinister looking clouds are gathering nearby. They're moving in our direction. Not acting like any clouds I've ever seen."

Chrom now looked rather concerned. Fare realized with a jolt the same thing Chrom no doubt had just realized. "Sully, is everything ok? Is the capital under attack?"

Sully blinked. "Uh, is it supposed to be?" she asked.

"When the Abyss storm happened here, it brought those," Solaire said, pointing at the burning pile of Hollows. "As well as a demon. The same could happen there."

"When I woke up, I was actually rather far from where the clouds were," Oscar said. "It took me hours to get to this village by foot. Those storms can transport things far and wide, as well as many it seems."

Sully ground her teeth. "Crap." She gave a light tug on her horse's reins, causing it to turn around. "Chrom, we better head back to the capital as soon as we can. Your friends coming with us?"

"I'd be happy to help," Solaire said cheerfully. "But I'm becoming rather worried that we're delaying our own mission too much."

Fare nodded. "We've put off taking the Lordvessel back long enough. I need to head back to our world and give it to Frampt. I can go alone. Oscar, you've done a lot for me but I'd like you to do more. Please go with these people and help them."

Oscar gave Sully a hesitant look. "As long as I am not accused of theft again," he said coldly.

Sully threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Yes, I obviously should've known your armor was duplicated by time travel. How silly of me."

"I don't think you should go alone," Chrom said. "One of us should go with you, to talk to this Frampt. We need to know what's expected of you as much as you do."

"How come?" Sully asked.

"Because the Lady Naga warned me of something." Tiki was standing by the fire, looking directly at the Hollows. "I didn't want to believe it, but with something like these cursed souls, there's no denying it. The Outrealm they're from isn't normal. There's another realm slowly engulfing it. Consuming it, choking the life out of it, slowly destroying it." She looked up sadly. "And that realm is growing larger and stronger. It's reaching out to consume other realms, and it's found ours."

Everyone gaped at her, even Solaire and Fare. "She doesn't mean the Abyss does she?" Oscar whispered. "I mean I thought heard you say Abyss earlier, but I thought it must've been a mistake." Fare shook her head sadly. "Oh Lords save us," he whispered. Fare didn't blame him. It was bad enough that the Abyss was choking their world to death, but now it was reaching out to others? They had to move fast.

"You're certain Tiki?" Chrom said. "There's no mistake?"

"Naga checked again and again, and with the damage these storms caused, as well as the monsters they bring, it's clear she's right." She didn't sound very happy to be proven wrong.

Chrom let out a rather depressed sigh. "Fare, I'd hate to say it, but it looks like this fight as as much our fight as it is your fight." Fare reluctantly nodded. "This makes it doubly important that one of us go with you."

"I will," Lucina said, stepping forward. "I've had experience with twisted worlds. I'll be fine there."

Chrom gave a weak smile, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I know. But be careful anyway. Your mother is expecting you to come back." Lucina smiled.

"If you're coming with me, you should touch the Lordvessel," Fare said. "All of you should, it's what allows you to travel through bonfires."

"Allows us to what now?" Sully asked.

"We can do that?" Oscar asked in astonishment. After awhile, the questions eventually died down and Fare watched as everyone slowly milled around the Lordvessel, gently touching it. Finally, they were done.

"Solaire, tell Oscar everything he doesn't know, as well as the others," Fare said, as she and Lucina watched the others climb back into the carriage, the Lordvessel having been left in front of them.

"Make sure she stays safe Lucina," Chrom said from the driver's seat.

"Both of you stay safe!" Lissa called from next to him.

"Wait! I almost forgot!" Solaire jumped down from the carriage, reaching into a small pouch around his waist as he did. Approaching Lucina, he pressed what he had taken from it into the palm of her hand. Fare glanced at it and saw a very familiar looking object white gem. "You'll want this in Lordran. It's a White Soapstone. People can leave signs all over Lordran with them, signs that others can touch to summon the leaver when they're in need."

"How many of those things do you have Solaire?" Fare asked. "You give one to me, you must have one yourself, and now you've got a third to give to Lucina?" Solaire chuckled.

Lucina smiled and pocketed the soapstone. "Thank you," she said kindly. "I'll keep it in mind whenever I'm in trouble."

"Don't forget, you can always use it to help others in need too." Solaire said, turning back and climbing back onto the carriage.

"I won't!" Lucina called out as as the driver cracked the rains as the carriage trundled off, Sully following alongside it on her horse.

"So how does this work?" Lucina asked, looking at the bonfire.

"Just reach in, and imagine the place you want to travel to," Fare said. "You can only do it to places you've been before, but you can hold onto other people. So just grab my shoulder with one hand and hang onto the Lordvessel with the other."

"Right," Lucina said. Together, the two of them lifted the Lord Vessel above their heads and slowly moved towards the Bonfire, settling it down next to it gently.

Fare sat down right in front of the Bonfire, staring into its dim embers. She felt Lucina's hand grip her shoulder and saw out of the corner of her eye that she was holding the Lordvessel. "I hope you don't mind me saying that I still don't fully understand what's going on," Lucina said.

"Don't worry, I don't either," Fare said, reaching into the fire, picturing Firelink Shrine in her mind. A wonderfully warm feeling wrapped around her, much like a blanket. For awhile, there was only darkness, but before too long, she found herself kneeling on very familiar feeling mossy rocks. She smiled as she realized she was no longer in the village, but rather in the center of a crumbling stone shrine.

"Oh. It's you. Still sane?" an unnaturally soft voice said. "Who's the friend? Another Undead that should've just stayed at the Asylum?"

Fare fought back the urge to groan. She'd forgotten about him. "Who's that?" Lucina asked as both of them got to their feet. A man in chainmail was sitting on pile of rocks by a nearby archway, watching them with bored eyes.

"He refuses to tell me his name," Fare muttered. "He just sits there all day whining about everything."

"On the contrary I was actually starting to enjoy this place until you had to go and wake him up," the man said grumpily, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the archway. "Have you ever tried to get to sleep with the smell its breath makes?"

"He refuses to shut up about it," a second voice said.

"He's not lying. We can hardly g-go an hour without him bringing it up." Fare smiled when she saw a man in black robes and a second man in a brown hood sitting in front of each other near the Bonfire.

"Lucina, Griggs of Vinheim and Laurentius of the Great Swamp," she said, pointing out the man and black and then the man in brown. "We haven't known each other long but we have helped each other out from time to time." It was true. Fare barely knew the two of them and had a feeling that their paths could part at any time, unlike her and Solaire's paths. Still, she did feel comfort knowing that she could rely on them for help until that time came. Although that time seemed to have already come for someone. "Griggs, where's Logan?" The sorcerer Big Hat Logan and the hat that gave him his namesake were nowhere to be seen.

"Ah. The Master left, heading back to Sen's Fortress. He said he was determined to make it to Anor Londo and find an archive of knowledge he was certain was there," Griggs said. He looked rather exhausted as he said it.

Fare's eye twitched. "I found him in a cage when I went through there the first time. He wants to go back?"

"I tried to convince him otherwise, but he couldn't listen," Griggs said defensively. "He's very stubborn. I'm getting a little worried, he's been gone a long time. I'm starting to think I should go after him."

"Don't," Fare said. "Logan is supposed to be one of the most powerful sorcerers in living memory. If it's too much for him, it's too much for you."

Laurentius nodded. "Think about this Griggs. You and I may be skilled at magic but we're hardly seasoned fighters. We'd be better off s-staying here."

Griggs bit his lip nervously. "Logan is indeed one of the most powerful sorcerers in living memory. That's why I can't just let him go Hollow inside of Sen's Fortress."

"Well, I did manage to make it through in the end, and I had to disarm a couple of traps to do so," Fare said hesitantly. She hadn't known Big Hat Logan for very long, nor did she know him particularly well. She had rescued him from Sen's Fortress, pulling him out of a gibbet that he had been locked in. Despite that, he had kept to himself when he had moved to Firelink Shrine afterwards, hiding his face under that impractically large hat of his.

He hadn't exactly been rude, but he hadn't been courteous either. He hadn't said much, only ever talking at length with Griggs, who was a fellow sorcerer. She was rather annoyed that he was running off back to where he had nearly died, but in the end it was his decision and not hers. Still, she couldn't help but feel worried. She didn't particularly like him, but she had no desire to see him go Hollow. It was why she had let him out of the gibbet in the first place, which had hardly been the first time she had freed someone who had been trapped.

"Ah, hello. I was wondering when you'd be back. You've been gone a long time." A man in gilded gold armor was climbing up a set of stairs, coming from the opposite direction of the archway. She recognized him. She had found him locked in a cell long ago and had let him out at his pleading.

"Lucina, Lautrec of Carim," Fare said hesitantly. Something about Lautrec made her feel uneasy. She could never pin down exactly what it is. Maybe it was how calm he had been when she had found him in his cell, or maybe it his oddly soft voice, which could barely be above a whisper at times. His armor was a possibility as well, his helmet not having a normal visor but a couple dozen, scattered, tiny holes that gave him a very uncanny look.

"Ah, and where does your new friend hail from?" Lautrec asked with interest, looking at Lucina.

"You know, you never mentioned that," Griggs said.

Fare wondered if it would be a good idea to tell them about how Lucina was from another world. If they didn't believe her, they might see it as a sign that she was going insane, and by extension Hollow. On the other hand things like time being convoluted were common knowledge in Lordran, so they might find the concept mundane. Lucina answered before Fare could make up her mind. "I'm sorry, but Fare and I are in a bit of a hurry," she said.

"Ah, of course," Lautrec said politely. "Pardon my rudeness. It's just that I owe Fare a favor. She did something very important for me, and there's something I want to give her for it." Lautrec stretched out his arm, and Fare saw that he was holding up a rather worn scroll. "You're a Pyromancer if I recall. You might find this interesting. Some old hermit's personal research into Pyromancey." He chuckled. "Then again I just described all Pyromancers there didn't I?"

Fare felt a twinge of annoyance as she reached out and took the scroll. "Thank you," she said. "Come on Lucina." The two of them picked up the Lordvessel before they turned and walked towards the archway.

"Pinch your nose," the gloomy warrior said as they passed him.

After a few minutes of walking, they found themselves in front of a square pit, one that went down so deep that its bottom couldn't be seen. A giant, gray serpent was stretching out of it, its head resting on the ground in front of the pit, its eyes closed. A couple of strips of flesh that looked rather like a mustache was hanging under his snout. Like the gloomy warrior had said, a horribly rancid smell was coming from him, as if there was a pile of ripe corpses in his mouth "He's the one that told me I was the Chosen Undead. Kingseeker Frampt," Fare said as they set the Lordvessel down. Lucina's eyes widened at the sight of the serpent, after a minute she let out a small chuckle.

"Seems like all you've done since we got here is introduce me and explain things to me," Lucina said. "Sorry about that. It must be annoying."

"I only have to do it once," Fare said, "Don't worry about it."

"So how did you meet those people?" Lucina asked. "Frampt seems like he might be asleep for a bit."

"Griggs I found locked inside of a building in Undead Burg. It looked like he had barricaded himself in and slipped the key out underneath the door in a panic," Fare said. "He was a bit of a nervous wreck when I found him, there were Hollows all around. He's nice enough, though he's a bit of sycophant towards Logan. Laurentius had been captured by a couple of giant Hollows and he said something about 'her' going to eat him." She frowned. "Not sure what he meant by that, the two Hollows I killed near him were male. He seems to like me more than most because we're both from the Great Swamp. He says he doesn't mind being alone though, which I can kinda understand."

"I see," Lucina said. "Do you consider them friends?"

"I wish I could say that, but I can't," Fare admitted. "We've only met a couple of times, most of the other times we go our own ways. That's rather typical here."

"Don't you ever get lonely?" Lucina asked. "When I was in a situation like this, I still had my friends with me."

"I've got Solaire, he makes for better company than you think," Fare said. She felt a little weird talking about this. Not uncomfortable, but weird. "As for lonely, I suppose sometimes I do. I'm like Laurentius in that I like being alone sometimes. Just me and my thoughts, it's pleasant. I don't like being that way all the time though, I do want to be around people after I've had my time alone. Preferably people I know very well." She swallowed. "I'm glad you still had your friends."

Lucina gave a small smile. "You can be one of them if you want."

Fare blinked and felt her face get rather hot. It was a little absurd. She was supposed to be on a mission to save Lordran from the Abyss, the idea of sitting around talking about making friends was almost laughable. Yet here she was. And she couldn't help but smile. "I'd like that," she said. Lucina was about to reply when Frampt gave a rather loud snore. Her cape blew behind her from the force and her hands clamped down over her nose. Fare's eyes watered as the smell hit her as well.

"All right, we've been patient enough," Fare said. Getting to her she walked to where Frampt was sleeping and smacked him across the snout.

"Hm? No, no, I'm fine, I'm fine! Well and wide awake!" Frampt spluttered, his head rising groggily. "Do not treat me like an old withering snake." He let out a loud yawn, blinking wearily. "Ah, Chosen Undead, it's you. Have you-" he stopped as he spotted the Lordvessel. "Oh heavens! You've done it! After a thousand years it really is you!" Without warning, his neck stretched forward and his teeth closed around the edge of the Lordvessel, dragging it down with him as he descended into his pit, well out of sight.

Lucina and Fare had just enough time to look at each other before Frampt rose back up without the Lordvessel. Fare opened her mouth ask what was going on when he opened lowered his head and closed his jaw around her. The smell was more intolerable than ever, pressed directly into her face along with something uncomfortably wet and squishy. She was about to scream went the grip around her lessened and she fell a few feet before hitting hard ground. "WHAT WAS THAT!?" she roared, looking up at Frampt.

He was now hanging upside down, his mustache like flesh dangling underneath him. He at least had the decency to look sheepish. "It is the only way I can bring others down here. I apologize, I got a little excited. I should have warned you. But this is where you must place the Lordvessel. Firelink Altar. The gate to the Kiln of the First Flame."

Fare's anger at Frampt faded as she looked around. She was in a poorly lit stone room, empty aside from the torches, a plinth, and a set of stone gates behind it. "You mean the First Flame is behind that gate?" She felt a little giddy. "You mean all we have to do is open that gate?"

"Sadly, opening the gate is not that simple," Frampt said. "But first, place the Lordvessel on the plinth." He nodded at the Lordvessel, which was at Fare's side. Nodding, she bent down and grabbed it. With some difficulty, she picked it up, using her chest to push it up just as much as she was using her arms. Eventually, she managed to get it to the plinth, almost dropping it as she laid it down. Stepping back, she blinked in surprise.

Fire had ignited in the middle of the of the middle of the Lordvessel, quickly spreading to fill the entire bowl. It was a very pleasant fire, giving off the same warmth as the Bonfires. She had been about to reach out to bathe in its warmth when a pillar of light erupted from the Lordvessel, reaching up through a hole in the roof. Fare stumbled back in surprise, tripping and landing on her bottom as she gazed in amazement at the pillar. Eventually, slowly, it faded away. She continued to stare where it had been, dumbfounded, before getting to her feet. "What was that?" she asked, not turning around to face Frampt.

"There are special barriers throughout all of Lordran protecting the weirder of Lord Souls," Frampt said. "Nothing can break them. Nothing but the Lordvessel, as it just did. Great power is needed to open the gate, the power of brilliant souls. Scarce few posses such souls. Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, with their Lord Souls. The Four Kings of New Anor Londo and Lord Gwyn's former confidant who inherited shards of his own Lord Soul. These are the only brilliant souls in Lordran that can fill the Lordvessel. The gate will only open when the Lordvessel is full. Because of the Lordvessel, you can now reach these souls."

"Wait, I'm supposed to gather the Lord Souls?" Fare said. She couldn't believe this. Seath the Scaleless and the Four Kings were one thing, but the Mother of Fire and Nito? The ones she had seen as gods and she was supposed to just collect the very thing that made them gods? "But how?" she asked. "Are they just supposed to give them to me? To show their approval?"

"I doubt it will be that easy," Frampt said. "They are not what they once were. The Four Kings betrayed their city to the Abyss, forcing Gwyn to flood it. Seath has gone mad and locked himself away in his fortress, performing horrible experiments. Nito has withdrawn into his domain of the dead, selfishly hiding and refusing to aid those who stand against the coming darkness. And the Witch of Izalith." Frampt paused, looking at Fare. "I was told not to reveal the nature of her fate, but you are a Pyromancer are you not?" he asked.

Fare nodded. "Of the Great Swamp. We hold the Mother of Fire in the highest regard of all the Lords."

"Then, as the Chosen Undead and a follower of the Witch of Izalith, I will tell you," Frampt said kindly. "She performed the ultimate sacrifice. She sacrificed most of her Lord Soul to keep the First Flame alit after the corruption of New Anor Londo. The strain killed her, but her sacrifice was not in vain. Without it, the Abyss would have overrun all. Demons stole what was left of her soul and fled to Izalith, the home of the Witch. Demons rule it now, guarding the remains of the Lord Soul with their lives." Frampt locked eyes with Fare. "Do you understand what I ask of you?"

"I do," Fare said, feeling unexpectedly confident. If the Mother of Fire could sacrifice her very soul for Lordran, bringing it back to where it belonged was simple by comparison. She could do this. "All four of those souls. I'll bring them back here. And open the gate."

Frampt nodded. "Yes. One more thing. Nito resides in the depths of the Tomb of the Giants, Seath the Duke's Archives near Anor Londo, and the demons within Izalith. But the Four Kings hide within the Abyss itself. You will have to enter that void to take their soul back. Merely existing inside the Abyss is fatal, you will need a guard. Go to the grave of Artorias the Abysswalker in Darkroot Garden. His ring will protect you as it did him."

Fare nodded. "I'll do it Frampt," she said. She felt stronger than she had in a long time. For the longest time, her life had seemed like a dark, never-ending tunnel. But for the first time in the longest time that she could remember, there was a light at the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I think I made it obvious, but just in case I screwed it up, Fare has PTSD. I did my best to double check any sources I could find to make sure her condition was accurate, but I'm always worried I missed something or fucked it up. It doesn't help that apparently every case of PTSD is different. If you see anything about her that is inaccurate, please do not hesitate to tell me.
> 
> Also, some people may have noticed that I changed how Frampt told the Chosen Undead what to do. Well, to avoid going into spoilers for those who aren't familiar for Dark Souls, I just thought it'd be more in character for him to sugar coat what he was saying.
> 
> On another note, I put in scenes like Lucina talking about being Fare's friend, because Dark Souls is relentlessly bleak, but it's in a crossover with Fire Emblem now. Friendship is kind of a big deal there, and Fare's still a human who would want some kind of companionship. I tried to make it flow in naturally and subtly though, not just screaming "FRIENDSHIP IS THE BEST THING EVER! just showing two people bonding and how Fare is warming up to people from a world where life isn't a never ending battle.
> 
> Well let me know if I didn't address anything you felt needed to be explained.


	4. Pure Black Iron

XXXXX

Solaire hummed happily as he laid his straight sword along his lap, running a whetstone along the edge. He had already cleaned it and now he was simply sharpening it. As he ran his whetstone up his sword for the fifth time, he stopped. Frowning, he held up his sword to eye level. There was a small chink in the edge, no doubt from the prolonged fighting against the Hollows and the Capra Demon.

"No matter, simple enough to fix," he said to himself. Reaching into a pouch he had around his waist, he produced a small pinch of bright golden repair powder, sprinkling it onto the chink. He watched with a smile as the chink slowly disappeared. "That should do it," he said, sliding his maintained sword back into its sheath.

"So, Solaire of Astora correct?" Oscar was sitting right across from him, his arms folded. He sounded slightly on edge, but Solaire had a good feeling that it was mainly because of wounded pride from being accused of theft. "You've been traveling with Fare for some time now?"

Solaire paused before he answered. "Not exactly. We only started to truly travel together recently. Our paths had crossed beforehand but we always went out separate ways after." Solaire had to admit that even something like that was rather rare in Lordran. Normally if you met someone in that land, you would only meet them again if they refused to move from where you had found them. It was rare to meet another traveler again, yet somehow he and Fare had both survived long enough to keep finding each other.

"Well, you still must have seen her. Do you mind telling me what you know about her? I think I should now considering that I…died for her." There was a faint sound in the carriage, and although he could barely hear it, Solaire was sure it was the sound of Oscar swallowing. "I just want to know who I died for."

Tiki, who had been sitting nearby, canned her neck to look at the conversation, a mixture of curiosity and horror on her face. Solaire looked at Oscar, digging up old memories of Fare. "The first time I ever met her was in Undeadburg, just before the parish. She was a bit of a mess then, I hope she doesn't mind me saying that. Her legs were shaking like twigs and her equipment was in a sorry state. Torn leather armor, a cracked wooden shield, and a chipped axe that looked like it should've been used to cut trees, not flesh."

"Wait, she was in Lordran but she didn't have my armor?" Oscar said. "Are you telling she went BACK to the Undead Asylum?"

Solaire frowned. Now that she had touched the Lordvessel it would be easy for Fare to return to the Asylum, so long as there was a Bonfire there. That didn't make any sense though, Fare had only recently gained the ability to travel from Bonfire to Bonfire. It would've been a long trek she undertook to get back there. "She must have," he said.

"How and more importantly WHY!?" Oscar said. "There's nothing of value there! It's a crumbling, abandoned fortress that only has Hollows and a demon guardian. And if she was locked up in there, she must have nothing but bad memories of the place. Why go back?"

Solaire shook his head. "She never even told me that she did go back. I need to ask her myself. Now then, as I said, she was in a bit of a sorry state when I first saw her. Actually collapsed and had to rest against a wall for a few minutes. She was the first un-Hollowed person I had seen in quite some time, and she didn't appear to be a threat, so I approached her. Now that I think back, she did mention you Oscar, though not by name. She said that a knight had freed her from the Asylum and asked her to fulfill and ancient prophecy with his dying wishes. She said that not only was it the only thing she knew what to do with herself, she said that she owed you for freeing her from that place."

Oscar fidgeted uncomfortably. "That was…kind of her." He sounded as if saying anything else would be a great effort. Solaire couldn't blame him. What were you supposed to say on events that included your own death?

"I gave her a soapstone and we parted ways. We encountered each other a couple of times afterward. Once on the rooftops of Undead Parish fighting a pair of axe wielding gargoyles, the second time in the Depths, the sewers underneath Undeadburg. We fought something that might have been a dragon at some point down there."

Solaire fought the urge to shudder at the thought of the monster he and Fare had only just barely managed to kill. It had had the body and wings of a dragon, but it had had six legs instead of four, and its head had been laughably small. All of this was very easy to miss from the dragon's front, which opened from top to bottom to reveal a gaping maw lined with hundreds of teeth, many of them longer than a fully grown man. The entire fight the creature had been thrashing across the floor, desperately gnashing at them and trying to swallow them. He doubted that the two of them would've made for a satisfying meal for the monster, yet it had tried to eat them all the same.

"After that I didn't meet her again until Anor Londo," Solaire said. "Once there we approached the throne room, and on Gwyn's name I am speaking the truth, dueled against Smough the Execution and Ornstein the Dragonslayer to prove our worth." Tiki looked at Solaire with confusing covering her face, while Oscar looked at him in stunned silence.

After a few words, he found his voice. "The Ornstein the Dragonslayer? Of the Four Knights The two of you fought him?"

"Yes," Solaire said. "Though technically Fare was the one who fought Ornstein, I fought Smough." Utter disgust curdled at the pit of Solaire's stomach as he thought of Smough. Untrained, impatient and just above a mindless savage. A man like that was part of the Four Knights now? Noticing that Oscar was still staring at him blankly, Solaire added "I wouldn't say that she won though. Ornstein wasn't trying to beat her, just gauge if she was worthy or not. He landed twice as many blows on her as she did on him."

"Ah," Oscar said. As he slumped back into his seat, Solaire realized that Oscar had been rather stiff during their conversation. "Well that makes sense. She may be the Chosen Undead but even then that isn't enough to beat someone like Ornstein in single combat. Plus she's from the Great Swamp, and if I recall what I learned about them, they don't train knights in the same way that other kingdoms do. I trained since I was a child to wild a sword, I doubt she's had the privilege."

"Yes," Solaire said. Fare had made an offhand comment about having some combat training, but it hadn't sounded like very much. It had seemed as if she had been forced to learn how to fight first hand. It had paid off though, for while she was hardly a master swordswoman she was now proficient with a sword. At least on par with some of the knights he had met. Solaire wondered how long she had fought to reach that level. A chilling thought flowed into his mind, as he realized she could've spent years struggling her way through Lordran, fighting on her own and being forced to become more skilled to survive. He cast that thought aside. Nothing good would come from imagining horrible fates.

"Apart from that I don't know much about her. I know that she's a pyromancer, something that's common among denizens of the Great Swamp, and that when I met her she didn't seem to know much about Lordran. She still struggles with some parts of it. Everything else about her that I know is more along the lines of who she is, rather than what she is."

"I see," Oscar said, his voice rather odd. "I'd like to get to know her better personally. I think I am allowed that right."

"I doubt she would have a problem with that, she did seem quite friendly," Tiki said.

Oscar didn't look at her and made an odd non-committed noise. "I don't friendliness plays a very large factor here," he said. "She says that she saw me die."

Solaire nodded. "I can see how that would make you feel, but I still think you should-" there was a sudden jerk as the carriage lurched to a halt.

In the front, Chrom and Lissa sprang to their feet. "What's going on!?" Chrom shouted.

"M'Lord!" Solaire heard the driver cry, even through the wooden wall of the carriage. "The castle!" That was all Chrom had needed to hear. He kicked open the door to the carriage and bolted out, his sister right after her. Solaire, Oscar and Tiki glanced at each other before scrambling out of their seats as well. Solaire was the first out, his shield and sword drawn. He could hear Oscar drawing his own sword as he hit the grass, looking around.

They were in the middle of a courtyard, out of the corner of his eye he could see that they had already passed through the castle's gate. The sound of steel on steel filled his ears, and all around him he could see men fighting. They weren't fighting other men, or even Hollows, however. They were fighting creatures with the scale covered human bodies and the heads of serpents, nearly all of them carrying large curved blades, along with wooden shields.

Solaire had seen these creatures before in an abandoned fortress in Lordran. Vicious beasts that had attacked him on sight. He glanced him at the sky and saw clouds fading away above him. The clouds that were made of darkness and had brought him to this world in the first place. "Again," he whispered. Chrom had already darted forward and swung Falchion at the nearest serpent man, who had been fighting a badly wounded soldier. Chrom managed to attack it from behind, and with a few quick slices it was dead on the ground, the soldier gaping in surprise.

"My Lord Chrom," she gasped, falling to her knee. Solaire wasn't sure if she had done this out of respect or because her other leg was bleeding profusely. "They came out of nowhere. We tried to rally but they were everywhere. The fighting has dissolved into a hundred different skirmishes. I don't-"

"Save your breath," Chrom said gently, before turning to face his sister. "Lissa! Hurry!" Lissa didn't need to be told twice. She was at the soldier's side in a second, her staff lowered to the bleeding leg. It glowed brightly and as it faded the bleeding did as well.

"Thank you," the soldier said, using her spear as a support to stand again. "My Lord, I don't know where your wife and son are. I last saw them in the throne room, but that was hours ago."

Solaire saw conflict flicker across Chrom's face, but it was gone just as fast as it had come. Solaire suspected Chrom had forced it down. "They're skilled warriors, and they have each other. I'm certain that they can take of themselves. We need to take back control of this castle. We need to rally our forces, we can't afford to be divided. First thing's first, we need to clear the courtyard."

Chrom continued to talk, but Solaire had heard all that he had needed to. The courtyard needed to be cleared and he needed his forces rallied. Best the serpent-men be killed quickly then, before too many lives were lost. He darted forward, searching for a good target. He saw half a dozen different fights happening at the same time. Five soldiers had swarmed one of the serpent men, and although it swung its sword desperately, it was soon impaled by all of their spears, their combined strength lifting it off of the ground for a few seconds. A handful of archers had managed to man the walls and were loosing arrows wherever they could into the fight, and a handful of serpent men were already lying dead on the ground, arrows poking out of them.

Other fights weren't going as well. One of the serpent men brought its blade down and tore into the side of a soldier, sending the women flying to the ground as her intestines began to droop out of the wound. Another man lost his head to a vicious swipe from a serpent man, while another was gargling in agony as one of the serpent men had clamped its jaw shut around his neck.

Shutting out the countless screams of pain, Solaire spotted a trio of the serpent men who were advancing on a single soldier, their backs to him. Charging forward, Solaire thrust his sword forward and buried it to the hilt in the back of the nearest one. The serpent man cried out in agony, but before it could react, Solaire ripped his sword out and swung it into the monster's back again. This time, it fell silently to the ground, blood pouring out of its gaping wounds.

The other two had turned when their ally had fallen and were now advancing on Solaire. He followed both of their movements and noticed that they were slowly splitting apart. They were going to try and flank him. He darted to the right and advanced on one of them, but this proved to be unneeded.

He heard the sound of hooves hitting the ground just before Sully sped past him, driving her spear directly into the serpent man's throat. It was thrown off of its feet and onto its back, twitching and making low rasping noises, as Sully road on. Grinning, Solaire turned to face the final serpent man, which had abandoned all pretense and was now charging at him.

Solaire barely brought his shield up in time, the reptile's thick blade slamming into it. He felt himself forced backwards an inch as he forced the shield to stay up, despite the heavy impact of the blow. The serpent man raised its sword again, but this time Solaire ducked underneath the blow and hacked at his opponent's torso, tearing it open. He jumped back, barely avoiding a third strike from the serpent man, which buried itself in the ground instead. Solaire stared intently at the creature as it tried to pull its sword from the ground. It had to pull a couple of times before it could get it out, and it stumbled as it finally succeeded. Overall it was moving more sluggishly.

"It's badly wounded," Solaire muttered. Now that he wasn't focusing on dodging the monster's attacks, Solaire could see how badly hurt it had been from his attack. The gash in its side was huge, stretching from front to back, bright red blood pouring out even as the serpent man clutched at its side. It looked at Solaire, and he was certain that it had anger in its eyes. Before it could do anything else, however, a sword cleaved through the base of its neck from behind.

Solaire blinked in surprise as the headless body fell to the ground, revealing Oscar behind it. "Ha! They're not so hard to kill!" the knight shouted triumphantly. Solaire allowed himself a small smile before turning to find another foe. The fight was already turning in their favor. The soldiers seemed inspired by the return of their leader, or at the very least they had rallied behind him, because well over a dozen of them had formed a tightly knit pack around Chrom. Said pack was moving through the courtyard, Chrom at the lead, overwhelming the serpent men one by one while they were still separated by the smaller skirmishes.

In addition to that, Solaire realized with a pang of surprise that there was something on the far side of the courtyard with several dead serpent men by its feet. A bright green dragon, albeit the smallest one Solaire had ever seen, was breathing fire and swiping its claws, adding to the pile. Solaire looked on, feeling impressed. Tiki had not been overstating her powers in the slightest.

"Hey!" He felt someone tugging his arm and turned to see Lissa right next to him. "Most of these things are in the courtyard and my brother has them handled. But the guards saw some of them go inside the castle! Everyone else is busy, come on!"

"I'm sorry?" Oscar asked. "You're barely even a woman grown, I'm not-" but Solaire cut him off.

"Lead the way," he said. Either Lissa was ignoring what Oscar had said or she hadn't heard him through the chaos going on all around her, for she didn't react to him in the slightest. She merely bowed her head before turning and storming through the open castle gates, Solaire right behind her.

As the two progressed forward, Solaire heard an extra set of footsteps behind them, and knew that Oscar was following them after all. He grinned. He wasn't sure why Oscar had objected to not taking orders from Lissa, perhaps it had just been so long since he had served a lord. Either way, it seemed like he had made the right decision in the end.

The inside of the castle was rather empty compared to the courtyard inside, but the signs of battle where still everywhere. Splatters of blood on the wall, a horrible rancid stench, and bodies that littered the path they moved down as they followed the trail of carnage. While humans and serpent men both lay among the dead, Solaire released with a pang of remorse that there were far more human corpses than serpent ones.

"How many were seen entering?" Oscar said, finally catching up to Solaire and matching his pace. "It looks like a few dozen at the very least. At first that is. There appears to be less now."

Lissa craned her neck over her shoulder and shook her head. "Everything happened so fast no one got a good look at what was going on."

"It doesn't matter," Solaire said confidently. "I've seen beasts more powerful than these brought low by common steel. The three of us may be few, but we're more than a match for whatever numbers they have."

Lissa gave a nervous laugh. "I hope you're right." It was then that Solaire noticed that she had slung the staff that she had used for healing over her back and was now holding a thick leather-bound tome in her hand. Solaire stared at it with curiosity. He hadn't known Lissa long enough to claim that he knew her particularly well, but even he knew that she wasn't the type to start reading in the middle of a fight. He doubted that the tome she held was simply a book.

Forcing his focus back to the front, he and the others continued to move forward. What felt like a minute passed and yet still they found nothing living, simply more bodies. But there was something odd about those bodies. While the human bodies had initially dwarfed the serpent ones, that was quickly changing. Apart from a lone corpse here or there, only serpent men were lining the halls now.

That wasn't the only thing that Solaire found strange. He hadn't paid much heed to it until now, but now that he thought about it, the serpent men they had seen before had had multiple gaping holes in their chest and sides. It made sense, most of the soldiers had only been armed with spears, it would've taken two or three of them stabbing at the front of the front of one of the snakes in order to kill them.

The ones that they were passing now had much larger wounds. Many were burnt all over, some still smoldering, while others didn't have their outsides marked but lay at twisted angles, as if their insides had been reduced to paste. The ones that caught Solaire's attention, however, were the ones that had been torn apart. Many of them twisted and torn to the point where their torsos had almost been cleaved in half. A handful actually had suffered that fate, their lower bodies laying far from their upper.

"What in Gwyn's name?" he heard Oscar whispering behind him. Before anyone could reply, a scream echoed through the hallways. It had come from nearby.

"Ahead!" Lissa said. There was a door at the end of the hallway, one that they were rapidly approaching. It was wide openly, barely hanging on its hinges, and cracked. The three of them burst through, Solaire in the lead, and found themselves in a wide open chamber with a circular table in the middle.

A group, with some dressed in brightly colored clothing and others in worn and dirty clothing, cowered in the corner. None of them appeared to have weapons or armor. Half a dozen serpent men had formed a half circle around them, and were attempting to advance on them. As one of them prepared to make a lunge, a ball of fire tore through the air and exploded on its face. It howled in agony, dropping its weapon as it clutched desperately at its burning head, only for a bolt of lighting to tear through its chest as it did.

As it fell to the ground, Solaire saw that two people in purple coats were standing between the serpent men and the civilians. One of them had short blue hair and looked as if he was just old enough to be called a grown man, while the other had long purple hair tied up into a ponytail and appeared to be a decade older. They each had a sword in one hand and an open book in the other, and in unison they thrust their books forward. Once again, a fireball and a bolt of lightening tore through the chamber, the fire from the man and the lightning from the woman, the two spells claiming the lives of another serpent man.

Solaire had just enough time to notice that they weren't conjuring and focusing the spells in their hands the way he or Fare would have done should they use Miracles or Pyromancy. The spell seemed to appear directly in front of them. Whatever the magic the people in this world used, it was far different from what he knew. He barely had time to comprehend this before one of the serpent men turned and spotted them. It hissed, bringing its sword and shield to bare.

Solaire charged forward. As he did, he felt a massive gust of wind blow past him, slightly buffeting him, and smash into one of the serpent men that had still been facing the two in purple. It was blown off of its feet and against a wall, striking it with a loud crack before drooping, unmoving, to the floor. Having a distinct feeling that he had just seen what Lissa's tome was for, Solaire continued to advance on the serpent man whose attention he had drawn.

As he reached sword range, Solaire thrust forward, only to have the snake's shield turn his blade away. Snarling, the monster began to hack at him, viciously and without any coordination. Solaire dodged to the side, ducking and weaving as blow after blow narrowly missed him. He grit his teeth in concentration as his eyes followed the giant sword, looking for an opening. He took his chance as a blow meant to decapitate him narrowly missed and darted forward. With a single swipe, he opened a gaping wound in the snake's belly. He jumped back as the creature swung in retaliation and wasn't quick enough.

The sword cut into his right arm. His armor absorbed much of the blow, but he still felt a stab of pain as steel buried itself in his skin, only to stop with an unpleasant feeling of bone being hit. Forcing himself through the pain, he lunged forward again, bringing his blade up to the monster's neck. He saw its eyes widen in shock as the side of his blade tore into its throat, blood spewing out as it toppled to the ground. He felt a small amount of pity for the creature, but nothing more.

Looking to the side he saw that the others had dispatched the rest of the reptiles. Oscar was pulling his sword out of a badly burnt one, while the last one that had been standing collapsed, the fire covering it slowly dying out. Glancing at his arm, Solaire saw that the serpent's sword was still buried in his arm, loosely hanging out. Grabbing the far end of the blade, he pulled it out with a tug, a spike of pain tearing through him as he dislodged it from his bone. Fighting back a yelp of pain, he placed his shield on his back and drew his talisman, bringing it to hover over the wound.

As he concentrated and the talisman began to glow with a golden light, closing the wound, the purple haired woman spoke. "Lissa!"

"Robin!" Lissa bounded forward and wrapped her arms around the older woman, who returned the favor. That is to say, she returned the favor as best she could with a sword in one hand and a tome in the other.

"So, that's Chrom's wife and Lucina's mother," Solaire said to himself, his wound now fully healed. He had overhead Tiki telling Fare about them on the carriage ride. He frowned. Something didn't seem right about this. He thought it might have been a trick of the light when he had looked at Chrom, but now that he saw Robin he couldn't avoid it. Lucina wasn't a child, she was a fully grown woman, but that didn't make sense when he looked at their parents. They looked as if they were three decades old at the most, meaning they only could've reasonably have convinced a child as old as Lucina if they had done so as children.

Fittingly, as he was pondering this, Robin broke away from Lissa. "Lucina! Where are you dear?"

He blinked in confusion. "Lucina isn't with us. She-" trailed off. Out of the crowd of terrified civilians, a small girl walked out. She was clutching a small blue mask that looked rather like a butterfly in her hands, trembling as she stopped in front of Robin.

"Is it over mommy?" she said softly.

"Almost," Robin said, bending down and gently embracing the small girl. "But that metal giant is still nearby. Mommy has to go take care of it. Stay with Morgan." The young man that had been with Robin reached down and gently look Lucina by the hand, leading her back towards the crowd. Solaire was smiling softly at what he just saw but his mind also felt rather blank. Why was there another girl called Lucina?

"Metal giant?" Lissa asked, the color draining from her face. "Exactly how giant?"

"Very," Robin said grimly, letting go of the little girl as Morgan took her by the hand and let her back to the crowd, smiling gently as he did. "It was on the far side of the castle. It's been awfully quiet for some time now, and that makes me worried." As she spoke, she properly noticed Solaire and Oscar for the first time. "Lissa, who are these people?"

"Long story, but they're here to help," Lissa said. "But this giant?"

"Last I saw it, it was around the back of the castle. It had smashed the barracks in half," Robin said. "Before we could do anything about it we got swarmed by those snake things. We had to hold them off before we could do anything else." She looked around, a nervous expression on her face. "It was making a lot of noise earlier but now I can't hear it. I don't know why, but I doubt it's for a comforting reason."

Solaire had a good feeling he knew what this metal giant was. He had faced such a thing at the top of Sen's Fortress, the same place he had seen the serpent men. It had been a close battle but he had managed to win by forcing it to fall off of the tower by luring it to the edge and then hitting it with a few well placed strikes. Beating it again without it being so high up would be difficult. "Lead the way," he said.

"I'll keep Lucina and the others safe Mother!" Morgan shouted, a wide smile on his face. Robin shot her son a quick smile of her own before she led Lissa, Oscar and Solaire out of the chamber through a side door.

"Magic would probably be the best way to fight this thing," Robin said as the four of them ran through the hallway that they were in. "I'm not sure swords would work on it." She canned her neck to look at Solaire and Oscar. "Can either of you use magic?"

"Yes!" Solaire said, thinking of his Miracles. Lightning spears had worked on it before, he didn't see why they wouldn't work again. Oscar, on the other hand, was silent and stared at the floor. Solaire wasn't sure, but he could've sworn that he heard the knight muttering to himself.

"All right, between you, Lissa and myself we should stand a chance," Robin said. She slammed herself into a set of double doors, forcing them wide open. They were outside again, not in a wide open courtyard, but in a strip of land between the castle and the wall surrounding it. All of them spread out, looking in every direction that they could, trying to find the giant. It didn't take them long. What they saw, however, was far from what they were expecting.

The giant was so huge that it could have easily have grabbed someone standing on the third story of the castle. It had an axe that was large enough to match its size, dwarfing all of them, even though it was a one handed axe. Its hands alone were massive enough to grab one of them and crush them in its palms without even trying. It was dead.

It lay sprawled on the ground, its axed discarded at its side, not a single part of its body moving. There was a figure standing on its chest, wrenching something out of the giant's chest. With a loud grunt, the figure pulled out something thick and long, which Solaire realized was a greatsword. The figure slide off of the giant, wincing slightly as it hit the ground, and began to head towards them. It approached them slowly, limping as it approaching, not putting more weight than needed on its right leg.

As it neared, Solaire saw that it was wearing armor that was pure black iron and holding a greatshield and greatsword of the same black metal. Oddly enough, what seemed to be a wrought iron chalice was hanging from its neck by a chain. What was more, while tiny compared to the giant, this figure was a good head taller than Solaire, easily just as tall as the black knights.

It stopped in front of them, letting out a grunt of pain, before speaking in a deep, gruff voice. "I saw you fighting, but I couldn't make my way through the thick of the horde. I tried to reach you, but that thing found me first. Tell me. Are you all all right?"

Solaire noticed that the man's armor was drenched with blood, as was his sword. He had a feeling that he knew what had been the cause of the torn serpent men that he had found earlier. "We are all fine, thank you," Robin said, sounding a little shocked but keeping her composure. She was doing better than the others, Lissa's jaw was hanging open and Oscar was staring directly at him. Even Solaire felt overwhelmed that this person had managed to defeat the giant all on his own with little more to show for it than a bad leg. "I thought I might have seen someone your size earlier, but things were so chaotic that I didn't have tie to think about it."

The man let out a soft laugh. "It is quite understandable. I've seen battles like these before. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Tarkus. Tarkus of Berenike."

"Berenike?" Oscar said, sounding puzzled. "I thought knights from there were supposed to be bigger."

"BIGGER!?" Lissa shouted in exasperation. "Are you and I looking at the same person? We're all puny compared to him!"

"He speaks the truth," Tarkus said. "My brothers and sisters towered over me. The change did not effect me the same way that it effected them. Though I still became just as strong as they were."

Solaire paused. He had heard vague stories about the knights of Berenike. They were certainly far too large to be regular humans, yet they certainly weren't like the Black Knights. It made sense that they were transformed somehow. Yet he had never managed to get a consistent account of how it was done.

"Well, look, we can talk about how freakishly huge you have to be to count as freakishly huge," Lissa said. "There could still be fighting going on in the court yard. Chrom and the others could use our help."

"The battle was starting to turn in their favor, but she's right," Solaire said. "Which way to the courtyard from here?"

"It'd be faster if we stay outside and don't weave through the inside of the castle," Robin said.

"I'm not certain I would be able to keep up," Tarkus said. "My leg is broken. My armor is thick, but that was of little help when that thing smashed me into a wall."

"Hold on," Lissa said. In a second, she was at Tarkus' side, holding her staff against his leg as it glowed brightly. "All better!" she said, pulling away. Tarkus put some weight on the leg, and stood firm and tall as he did.

"Impressive Miracle," he said kindly. "Especially for one so young."

"Right, courtyard, this way!" Robin shouted. The journey felt surprisingly short to Solaire, with them rounding a corner of the castle twice in what felt like seconds. Before too long they were in the courtyard again. Solaire realized with relief that Lissa's concern had been baseless. While the bodies of soldiers still coated the ground, there were no more serpent men still standing. All of them had been slain.

"There are barely any wounded," Lissa said warily. It was true. While a handful of soldiers were crowded around a makeshift tent, clutching bloody gashes, the majority of them were either unharmed or dead.

"The serpent men are stronger than most men," Solaire said, glancing at the opening in his armor one of their blades had made. That it seemed that he had been luckier than most. "With that and the way they were swarming your men, it's sadly understandable that there would not be many who could keep fighting or escape once wounded. Still, remember this. There are many who will walk away today because of what we did here."

Lissa gave a small smile. "Right. Still, I should go help the ones who are wounded." With that, she made her way towards the small crowd of injuries soldiers.

"Oh Gods Robin, you're ok." Solaire had turned away from Lissa just in time to see Chrom grab his wife in a hug. Robin turned slightly red in the face, but smiled as she did the same to him, sliding her sword and tome away. He felt a warm feeling in his stomach as the two embraced. "Solaire? Is this another friend of yours?" Chrom asked, looking over Robin's shoulder at Tarkus.

"Not precisely," Tarkus said. "I must admit I am uncertain to where I am or why. I am glad that everyone is safe now, but I am terribly confused. Where am I? How did I get here from the fortress?" He cocked his head. "Why is your hair blue?"

Solaire forced down a bark of laughter. "I'm actually on the same page as him," Robin said, pulling away and looking at her husband. "What where those things? The giant? Where did they come from? Chrom, who are these people? And where's Lucina?"

As they spoke, Solaire spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Dimly flickering, it was barely visible at a distance and in the daylight, but there was no mistaking it. There was a Bonfire in the middle of the courtyard. "Your daughter is fine," Solaire said. "In fact I think we now have a way to get her back here faster than we were expecting."

"Get here back?" Robin asked. "Get her back from where?"

"It's a long story," Chrom said, sounding a little tired as he spoke. "Solaire, you can go and get Lucina back from wherever she went to right?"

"I can," Solaire said, nodding as he spoke. "It shouldn't take long."

"Well, I'll explain to Robin and…um," he glanced at Tarkus in confusion.

"Tarkus of Berenike. Though some of my brothers and sisters called me Black Iron Tarkus," Tarkus said gently.

"Very well," Solaire said. "I'll return shortly." His mind was filled with thoughts as he headed towards the bonfire. Another incursion from Lordran to here, so soon after the last one, wasn't something he had been expecting. He took another good look at the dead that filled the courtyard and felt a pang of regret. When combined, the corpses out here and inside the castle equaled at least a hundred. He wasn't sure how much time they had before something like this happened again. He prayed that they would have a respite, at the very least so they could form a plan for dealing with the Abyss. His new allies seemed reliable enough, but he doubted that they would be ready to charge into Lordran right away.

Pushing these thoughts out of his head, he knelt and reached into the Bonfire. Warmth engulfed him as he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in Firelink Shrine. Both Fare and Lucina were sitting directly in front of the shrine's bonfire, and both were clearly not expecting his suddenly arrival. Lucina let out a tiny yelp of surprise that she attempted to bite down on, while Fare fumbled and nearly dropped the scrolls that she had been holding

"Oh, ANOTHER one," said a low, droll voice. "I remember when this place was quiet and no one else was here. And it didn't smell. Can we go back to that please?" Solaire saw the same gloomy man in chainmail that had always been in Firelink behind the two women and decided to pay him no heed.

"Gods Solaire," Lucina said. "You startled me. I wasn't expecting to see you for a few more days."

"What happened?" Fare asked. "Did you double back? Or did you find another Bonfire?"

"I apologize. And there is another bonfire at your father's castle now," Solaire said, sliding into a sitting position. "Sully was right, there was another Abyss storm there. It was attacked by creatures from this world, many died. I'm sorry," he said sincerely, remembering the dead.

Lucina's eyes widened. "Is my family all right?"

Solaire pulled off his helmet, grinning as he did. "Yes. All of them. Your father, your mother, your brother." He paused, remembering the little girl that Robin had comforted. The one that had called her "mommy." "Your little sister is safe too."

Lucina blinked. "Sister? I don't have a-oh right." She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of my neck. "I didn't tell you about that did I? Remember when I mentioned I had dealt with something similar to the Abyss before? When I fought Grima? I actually had fought him two decades in the future when he ruled the world, nearly unopposed. I used a ritual created by Naga to travel back in time with my friends, to stop Grima before he even rose. It can't be used the other way around though, so I had to stay here with my family."

"So in other words, that little girl I saw at the castle," Solaire said, putting all of the pieces together.

"Is me," Lucina said. "A younger me."

"What?" Fare said, sounding dumbfounded. "There's two of you? You traveled back in time?"

"Oh come now Fare, in Lordran heroes that have been dead for centuries have been seen," Solaire said. "Compared to that, what Lucina did was rather tame." He had to admit that he found it a little odd that he wasn't particularly shocked or confused by this now that he could see the whole picture. It did make sense though. As he had said, time was warped in Lordran, making it very easy to talk with those who had passed away hundreds of years ago. What was more, after being transported to a different world, Lucina traveling back in time to where there was another her didn't seem too impossible.

"How does that even work!?" A sentiment Fare didn't seem to share. "Are you both the same people just at different points in your life? Or are you different people now? If something permanent were to happen to your younger self, like losing an eye, would you lose an eye?"

Lucina looked slightly embarrassed. "I might have been like the other Lucina at one point, but she's certainly a different person now. She won't have to grow up in a world ruled by Grima. Hopefully she'll know a safe and peaceful life once this is over. And no, I don't think it'd work that way."

"I see," Fare said, still sounding hopelessly lost. "So she's named Lucina too? Doesn't that get confusing?"

Lucina shrugged. "It does at times, but we've gotten used to it."

"Ah," Fare said. "So how do you," she trailed off. "I mean, it's not," again she trailed off. Seeing Fare struggle to say something, Solaire decided that a change in conversation was for the best. Fare would be fine after she had had time to think about what Lucina had told her. Hopefully

"What's in those scrolls Fare?" he asked simply.

"Scrolls! Right!" Fare said, a little too quickly. Lucina's eyes met Solaire as Fare spoke, and he saw her cheeks puff up for a second, as if she was fighting down the urge to laugh. Thankfully she succeeded, and slowly her puffed cheeks slid away, to be replaced by a very kind smile. "They're Pyromancy scrolls." Solaire peered at the scrolls. The paper was worn and tearing in some areas, while the writing was sloppy and tiny in many places. He blinked. It was almost the exact opposite of Miracle scrolls, written on crisp clean paper, its writing gilded with bright gold.

"It talks about quite a few ways to channel Pyromancy. One is Iron Flesh, the ability to harden one's skin against attacks. Though I already know that one," Fare said.

"You do?" Lucina said. "Why didn't you use it when you were fighting that demon then? It could have saved you from, well, dying." Lucina had stumbled and sounded less certain when she had mentioned dying. Solaire couldn't blame her, the Darksign and the Undead were still new concepts to her.

"It takes time to prepare," Fare answered. She was speaking a little faster now, and with noticeable energy in her voice. Solaire had a distinct feeling that she was excited to talk about Pyromancy. "And there's a reason that its called Iron Flesh. It makes your skin as hard as iron but it also makes it feel as heavy as iron. I can barely move with it,especially when I'm wearing armor at the same time. What's more doesn't make my skin impenetrable so faster foes can still slip around me and slowly whittle away at me."

"I suppose that makes sense," Lucina said, sounding thoughtful. "What's the other one?"

"It looks like it's Iron Flesh's twin. Power Within," Fare said, looking back down at the scrolls and tracing a line with her finger. "If used correctly, it should be able to temporarily increase my strength."

Wait," Lucina said suddenly. "If you were to use that, couldn't you counter the downsides to Iron Flesh?"

A light seemed to ignite behind Fare's dull hazel eyes. "I never even thought about it that way. Very clever thinking Lucina. I'll have to experiment a little." Her eyes swept back and forth across the paper. She frowned. "Though it appears that Power Within has drawbacks. It allows me to utilize my inner strength to hit harder than I possibly could on my own, but I could very easily end up harming myself. It forces the body to act beyond its boundaries, in all areas. In other words, my heart could beat so hard it would rupture or I could swing my sword with so much force I could break my arm."

Solaire fought back the urge to wince. "A powerful weapon to use. But a dangerous one," he thought to himself. He had never heard of a Pyromancy that could harm the user. Then again maybe there had been a good reason for that. The scroll Fare read from looked like the private notes of a researcher. If the Lords were just and kind, he had been keeping it away from the world, so that young and inexperienced Pyromancy students didn't accidentally kill themselves with it.

"You should test that before you use it on your own," Lucina said. Then, sounding a little embarrassed, she said, "I know that's a really stupid and obvious things to say, but I just felt like I should say it."

Fare gave an appreciative nod. "I understand. I'm not about to run off and use this carelessly." Rolling up the scroll, she deposited it in her bottomless box, which she then hoisted onto her back. "Well, we should be heading back shouldn't we? Frampt told me a lot Solaire. I hope you don't mind if I wait until we're with everyone else, I'd rather not have to explain it twice in a short period of time."

"I won't complain," Solaire said. "You don't know what the castle looks like, so hold onto one of us." Fare nodded as she reached out and put a hand on Solaire's shoulder. Feeling her grip, Solaire glanced at Lucina and saw that she was reaching out towards the fire, looking directly at him. The two of them exchanged a nod before reaching into the fire, and a warm feeling flowed over him.

XXXXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: The actual in-game description of Power Within is actually very brief and half of it was video game jargon, so I decided to tweak it in order to get it into a more workable form.
> 
> As for Black Iron Tarkus, for those of you who don't know, Tarkus is one of the NPCs that can be summoned in game to help fight a boss, the Iron Golem in his case. Tarkus is unique in that he is so strong that he's actually capable of taking the boss on by itself, something I have actually introduced first hand. There's also the fact that he's rather big but still smaller than the rest of the knights of Berenike, who are freaking huge. I dropped a couple of hints about where I'm going with this and I plan on getting more into that later. Well, that's all I think I need to cover in this note. Message me or leave a review if I forgot anything. Hopefully I'll be able to update this story again sometimes before 2017


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